Former Education Secretary Arne Duncan won’t run for Chicago mayor: source

SHARE Former Education Secretary Arne Duncan won’t run for Chicago mayor: source
ax055_77cb_9_e1536976438393.jpg

Arne Duncan, former U.S. Secretary of Education, speaks at the University of Chicago in September 2016. | Santiago Covarrubias/Sun-Times

Remove Arne Duncan’s name from the list of potential candidates for Chicago mayor.

The former Chicago Public Schools CEO who went on to become U.S. Secretary of Education in the Obama Administration is not running, a source close to Duncan said Friday.

Unlike many of the other would-be candidates whose names have been floated, Duncan had not shown any overt interest in joining the race.

But his experience, coupled with his Obama connections and perceived political ambition, had made the Hyde Park native an object of continued speculation in the wake of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s surprise decision to not seek re-election. Until now, Duncan had done little to quell the talk.

Since leaving the White House, Duncan has served as managing partner of the Emerson Collective, where he has developed programs to reduce violence by helping formerly incarcerated young men find employment.

Duncan, who also was a senior fellow at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy, has recently been promoting a new book, “How Schools Work.”

Duncan led the Chicago Public Schools from 2001 to 2009 under Mayor Richard M. Daley. Daley’s brother, William, plans to announce his campaign for mayor on Monday, a spokesman said.

RELATED:

• A Daley domino in play if Preckwinkle winds up being mayor?

• Will ‘Chuy’ run? Gutierrez aims to draft Garcia after bowing out of mayor’s race

• Reluctant or revved up? ‘Chuy,’ Toni, Susana mum as they hurtle toward collision

• Rahm’s out — Latest list of Chicago mayoral candidates who are in, considering

The Latest
The man was shot in the left eye area in the 5700 block of South Christiana Avenue on the city’s Southwest Side.
Most women who seek abortions are women of color, especially Black women. Restricting access to mifepristone, as a case now before the Supreme Court seeks to do, would worsen racial health disparities.
The Bears have spent months studying the draft. They’ll spend the next one plotting what could happen.
Woman is getting anxious about how often she has to host her husband’s hunting buddy and his wife, who don’t contribute at all to mealtimes.
He launched a campaign against a proposed neo-Nazis march at a time the suburb was home to many Holocaust survivors. His rabbi at Skokie Central Congregation urged Jews to ignore the Nazis. “I jumped up and said, ‘No, Rabbi. We will not stay home and close the windows.’ ”