Terry McAuliffe

Terence Richard McAuliffe (born February 9, 1957) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 72nd governor of Virginia from 2014 to 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, he was co-chairman of President Bill Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign, co-chairman of the 1997 Presidential Inaugural Committee, chairman of the 2000 Democratic National Convention, chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2001 to 2005 and chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign.

McAuliffe was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2009 Virginia gubernatorial election. In the 2013 gubernatorial election, after he ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, he defeated Republican Ken Cuccinelli and Libertarian Robert Sarvis in the general election. Due to Virginia law barring governors from serving consecutive terms, he was succeeded by his lieutenant governor, Ralph Northam. McAuliffe ran for a non-consecutive second term as governor in the 2021 gubernatorial election but lost to Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin.

Throughout McAuliffe's term in office, the state had a Republican-controlled legislature and McAuliffe issued a then-record number of vetoes for a Virginia governor; the record was later surpassed by Youngkin. As governor, McAuliffe focused heavily on economic development and restored voting rights to a record number of released felons. During his final year in office, he responded to the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, condemning the rally and calling for the removal of Confederate monuments from public spaces throughout Virginia; Northam began the removal of these monuments a few years later.

Early life and education

Terence Richard McAuliffe was born on February 9, 1957, and raised in Syracuse, New York, the son of Mildred Katherine (née Lonergan) and Jack McAuliffe. His father was a real estate agent and local Democratic politician. The family is of Irish descent.

In 1975, McAuliffe graduated from Bishop Ludden Junior/Senior High School. In 1979, he earned a bachelor's degree from the Catholic University of America, where he served as a resident adviser. After graduating, McAuliffe worked for President Jimmy Carter's re-election campaign, becoming the national finance director at age 22. Following the unsuccessful campaign, McAuliffe attended Georgetown University Law Center, where he obtained his Juris Doctor degree in 1984.

Business career

At the age of 14, McAuliffe started his first business, McAuliffe Driveway Maintenance, sealing driveways and parking lots.

In 1985, McAuliffe helped found the Federal City National Bank, a Washington, D.C.–based local bank. In January 1988, when he was thirty years old, the bank's board elected him as chairman, making him the youngest chairman in the United States Federal Reserve Bank's charter association. In 1991, he negotiated a merger with Credit International Bank, which he called his "greatest business experience." He became the vice-chairman of the newly merged bank.

In 1979, McAuliffe met Richard Swann, a lawyer who was in charge of the fundraising for Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign in Florida. In 1988, he married Swann's daughter, Dorothy. McAuliffe purchased some of American Pioneer's real estate from the Resolution Trust Corporation. His equal partner in the deal was a pension fund controlled by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA). They purchased real estate valued at $50 million for $38.7 million; McAuliffe received a 50% equity stake. In 1996, he acquired a distressed housebuilding company, American Heritage Homes, which was on the brink of bankruptcy. He served as chairman of American Heritage. By 1998, he had built American Heritage Homes into one of Central Florida's biggest homebuilding companies. By 1999, the company was building more than 1,000 single family homes per year. In late 2002, KB Home bought American Heritage Homes for $74 million.

In 1997, McAuliffe invested $100,000 as an angel investor in Global Crossing, a Bermuda–registered telecommunications company. Global Crossing went public in 1998. In 1999, he sold most of his holdings for $8.1 million.

McAuliffe joined ZeniMax Media as company advisor in 2000.

In 2009, McAuliffe joined GreenTech Automotive, as a non-executive chairman. GreenTech, a holding company, purchased Chinese electric car company EU Auto MyCar for $20 million in May 2010. Later that year, he relocated GreenTech's headquarters to McLean, Virginia, and the manufacturing plant was later based in Mississippi. In December 2012, he announced his resignation from GreenTech to focus on his run for governor of Virginia. In 2013, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigated GreenTech Automotive and McAuliffe for visa fraud. He attempted to gain tax credits from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), the state's business recruitment agency, to build GreenTech Automotive's factory in Virginia. He refused to supply the VEDP with proper documentation of their business strategy and investors, which caused the VEDP to decline economic incentives for GreenTech Automotive. He later falsely claimed during his gubernatorial run that the VEDP was uncooperative and uninterested in GreenTech Automotive.

In 2017, 32 GreenTech Automotive investors from China sued McAuliffe, Anthony Rodham, and others for fraud. The plaintiffs alleged that McAuliffe and his co-defendants promised to obtain EB-5 visas for the Chinese plaintiffs in exchange for $560,000 investments from each of them into GreenTech Automotive; however, the Department of Homeland Security did not provide the visas due to GreenTech's failure to generate the number of jobs required for the visas to be issued under the EB-5 program. In February 2018 the firm declared bankruptcy, and the following month a federal judge dismissed McAuliffe from the lawsuit.

According to The Washington Post, he has "earned millions as a banker, real estate developer, home builder, hotel owner, and internet venture capitalist."

Early political career

Relationship with the Clintons

McAuliffe had a prolific fundraising career within the Democratic Party and a personal and political relationship with Bill and Hillary Clinton. McAuliffe and his staff raised $275 million, then an unprecedented amount, for Clinton's causes while president. After Bill Clinton's tenure ended, he guaranteed the Clintons' $1.35 million mortgage for their home in Chappaqua, New York. The deal raised ethical questions. In 1999, he served as chairman of America's Millennium Celebration under Clinton. In 2000, he chaired a fundraiser with the Clintons to benefit Vice President Al Gore, setting a fundraising record of $26.3 million.

McAuliffe told to The New York Times in 1999, "I've met all of my business contacts through politics. It's all interrelated." When he meets a new business contact, he continued, "Then I raise money from them." He acknowledged that the success of his business dealings stemmed partly from his relationship with Bill Clinton, saying, "No question, that's a piece of it." He also credited his ties to former congressmen Dick Gephardt and Tony Coelho, his Rolodex of 5,000-plus names, and his ability to personally relate to people. In 2004, he was one of the five-member board of directors of the Clinton Foundation. He remained on the board until 2013, re-joining it in 2024. He told New York Times reporter Mark Leibovich in 2012 that his Rolodex held 18,632 names.

2000 Democratic National Convention

In June 2000, as organizers of the 2000 Democratic National Convention were working to raise $7 million, convention chairman Roy Romer resigned to become superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. McAuliffe immediately accepted appointment as Romer's replacement when asked on a phone call by presumptive presidential nominee Al Gore. Already in the news for a record $26 million fundraiser with Bill Clinton the month prior, he promised that money would be a "non-issue" for the convention, and that the outstanding $7 million would be raised "very quickly". Many in the party praised his selection, which was widely seen to represent the growth in his influence, with James Carville telling The New York Times that "his stock is trading at an all-time high".

Chair of the Democratic National Committee

In February 2001, McAuliffe was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and served until February 2005. During his tenure, the DNC raised $578 million and emerged from debt for the first time in its history. Prior to serving as chairman of the DNC, he served as chairman of the DNC Business Leadership Forum in 1993 and as the DNC finance chairman in 1994.

In 2001, McAuliffe founded the Voting Rights Institute. In June 2001, he announced the founding of the Hispanic Voter Outreach Project to reach more Hispanic voters. The same year, he founded the Women's Vote Center to educate, engage and mobilize women at the local level to run for office.