Richard D. Mahoney (born May 28, 1951) is an American politician and academic. He was the

Secretary of State of Arizona The secretary of state of Arizona is an elected position in the U.S. state of Arizona. Since Arizona does not have a lieutenant governor, the secretary stands first in the line of succession to the governorship. The secretary also serves as act ...

from 1991 until 1995. He has been the director of the School of Public and International Affairs at

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and p ...

, since July 1, 2012. SPIA is part of NC State's College of Humanities and Social Sciences. He is the son of US ambassador William P. Mahoney Jr. and grandson of Arizona politician W. P. Mahoney.

Academia

Mahoney was educated at

Brophy College Preparatory Brophy College Preparatory is a Catholic high school in Phoenix, Arizona, United States founded in 1928. The school has an all-male enrollment of approximately 1,400 students. It is operated independently of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoeni ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

and

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

. Mahoney has lectured as a visiting professor at Templeton College (Oxford University), The JFK School of Government (

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

), the

Beijing Institute of Foreign Trade The University of International Business and Economics (UIBE; ) is a public university located in Chaoyang, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education. and co-funded by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Commer ...

, and the Universidad Del Pacífico – Ecuador (

Quito Quito (; ), officially San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and second-largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its metropolitan area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, P ...

campus). He was also professor emeritus at the

Thunderbird School of Global Management The Thunderbird School of Global Management (or simply Thunderbird) is a global leadership, management, and business school at Arizona State University, a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. It was founded in 1946 as an i ...

. Mahoney is the author of three books, two of which are about the John F. Kennedy administration: ''JFK: Ordeal in Africa'' (1983) and ''Sons and Brothers: The Days of Jack and Bobby Kennedy'' (1999). His latest book is titled ''Getting Away with Murder: The Real Story Behind American Taliban John Walker Lindh and What the U.S. Government Had to Hide'' (2004). Mahoney has also authored numerous articles and monographs on presidential history, foreign policy, international trade, and political risk; and a volume of poetry in Spanish, titled ''Pétalos'' (1995).

Political career

A member of the Democratic Party, Mahoney served as chief

speechwriter A speechwriter is a person who is hired to prepare and write speeches to be delivered by another person. Speechwriters are employed by many senior-level elected officials and executives in the government and private sectors. They can also be em ...

in the presidential campaigns of Senators

Gary Hart Gary Warren Hart (''né'' Hartpence; born November 28, 1936) is an American politician, diplomat, and lawyer. He was the front-runner for the 1984 and 1988 Democratic presidential nominations, until in 1988, he dropped out amid revelations of ex ...

and

Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter known for his solo work and his collaborations with Art Garfunkel. He and Garfunkel, whom he met in elementary school in 1953, came to prominence in the 1960s as Sim ...

in the 1980s. Mahoney was elected by a landslide as the 14th Secretary of State of Arizona in 1990, alongside the narrow election of Republican Governor

Fife Symington John Fife Symington III (born August 12, 1945) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 19th governor of Arizona from 1991 until 1997. Symington, who is a member of the Republican Party, resigned from office in 1997 following ...

. Mahoney led gubernatorial Democrat

Terry Goddard Samuel Pearson "Terry" Goddard III (born January 29, 1947) is an American attorney and politician who served as the mayor of Phoenix, Arizona from 1984 to 1990 and as the 24th attorney general of Arizona from 2003 to 2011. He is a member of the ...

by 50,000 votes, and beat Republican Treasurer Ray Rottas by over 170,000 votes, taking every county in the state. The inauguration of Arizona's executive offices changed from March to January, which meant Mahoney served two fewer months when his term ended in 1995. Mahoney was the last Democrat to hold the office of Arizona Secretary of State until the election of

Katie Hobbs Kathleen Marie Hobbs (born December 28, 1969) is an American politician serving since 2023 as the 24th governor of Arizona. A member of the Democratic Party, she was secretary of state of Arizona from 2019 to 2023 and a member of the Arizona Le ...

in 2018. He ran for the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

, narrowly losing the primary to Sam Coppersmith by 132 votes (or 0.05% of all votes cast in the Democratic Primary). He ran as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

for

Governor of Arizona A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

, but polled under 7%.

Post-political career

Mahoney formed a foundation, Nuestra Familia, in 1998. The foundation started

social entrepreneurship Social entrepreneurship is an approach by individuals, groups, Startup company, start-up companies or entrepreneurs, in which they develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to ...

projects, including the creation of small profit centers to fund social justice and human development programs, in two Latin American countries. Mahoney served as head of the Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at

Juniata College Juniata College () is a private liberal arts college in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1876 as a co-educational normal school, it was the first college started by members of the Church of the Brethren. It was originally founded as a cent ...

until his departure to the School of Public and International Affairs at

References

External links

North Carolina State University profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahoney, Richard 1952 births Living people People from Glendale, Arizona Writers from Arizona Princeton University alumni Arizona State University alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni North Carolina State University staff Juniata College faculty Harvard Kennedy School staff North Carolina State University people Secretaries of state of Arizona Arizona Democrats Arizona independents