Bill de Blasio is an American politician who served as the 109th mayor of New York City from 2014 to 2021.
Born Warren Wilhelm Jr. on May 8, 1961, in Manhattan, he was the youngest of three sons of Warren Wilhelm, a World War II veteran and economist of German, English, French, and Scots-Irish ancestry, and Maria Angela de Blasio, an Italian-American public-relations professional and writer.
His parents separated when he was young, and he was raised primarily by his mother and her extended family in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He legally changed his name first to Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm and later to Bill de Blasio to honor his maternal Italian heritage and distance himself from his father, who struggled with alcoholism and died by suicide in 1979.
De Blasio earned a bachelor’s degree in metropolitan studies from New York University and a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University.
Siblings
Bill is the youngest of three brothers. His older brothers are Steven, who is approximately thirteen years his senior, and Donald, who is about eight years older.
The brothers grew up together initially in Connecticut and later in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after the family relocated.
Following their parents’ separation, Bill and Donald were raised mainly by their mother, Maria, while the family dynamics were shaped by their father’s absence and personal struggles.
Public details about Steven and Donald’s later lives remain limited, as they have stayed largely out of the political spotlight.
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Career
De Blasio began his political involvement as a student activist and later worked as a volunteer coordinator and aide in the administration of New York City Mayor David Dinkins.
He served as a regional director for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under Andrew Cuomo and managed Hillary Clinton’s successful 2000 campaign for the U.S. Senate.
In 2001 he was elected to the New York City Council, representing Brooklyn’s 39th district from 2002 to 2009.
He then won election as New York City Public Advocate, serving from 2010 to 2013.
In 2013 he campaigned for mayor on a progressive platform promising to address the “tale of two cities” of inequality, and he won the Democratic primary and general election in landslides.
As mayor from 2014 to 2021, he implemented universal pre-kindergarten, expanded affordable housing, raised the minimum wage, reformed stop-and-frisk policing practices, and advanced climate initiatives including the Climate Mobilization Act.
He was re-elected in 2017. In 2019 he launched a short-lived campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination before returning focus to City Hall.
His tenure included managing the city through the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
After leaving office in 2021 he remained active in progressive politics and public commentary.
Accolades
De Blasio’s most widely recognized achievement is the creation and expansion of universal pre-kindergarten in New York City, which became a national model for early childhood education.
His administration also oversaw the preservation and construction of more than 200,000 units of affordable housing and helped secure a $15 minimum wage for city workers.
He received recognition for advancing progressive priorities on inequality, mental health through initiatives such as ThriveNYC, and climate action aimed at making New York carbon-neutral by 2050.
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