William Joseph Walsh (born December 27, 1961) is an American politician, talk radio host, former social worker, and 2020 Republican Party presidential candidate who represented in the United States House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013. He left the Republican Party and registered as a Democrat in 2025.
Born and raised in the Chicago metropolitan area, Walsh began his career as a social worker providing education and job skills training to students in low-income areas, gradually becoming more politically active. Walsh had unsuccessfully campaigned for Congress in 1996 and the Illinois House of Representatives in 1998, but was elected to the U.S. House in 2010, defeating three-term incumbent Melissa Bean. Though he received little Republican Party support in his bid against Bean, he was popular with the Tea Party movement. In the 1990s, he identified as a moderate Republican but later became a conservative and a Tea Party activist.
During his time in Congress, Walsh was criticized for his often personal attacks against members of the Democratic Party and, specifically, President Barack Obama. He accused the president of abandoning the U.S.–Israel alliance and bankrupting the country. Walsh maintained a no-compromise approach to legislating that included rejecting any tax increases. He consistently voted against raising the federal debt ceiling and authored a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution. Walsh rejected the scientific consensus on climate change and supported tougher border control. Later during his presidential campaign, Walsh expressed regret for some of the comments and stances he made during his time in Congress.
As a result of redistricting following the 2010 United States census, Walsh's district was redrawn by the Democratic-controlled Illinois General Assembly in 2012. While he initially planned to run in the newly drawn 14th district against fellow Republican representative Randy Hultgren, he eventually decided to run in the remapped 8th district against Democratic candidate Tammy Duckworth. Walsh was defeated by Duckworth (who would also later go on to become a Senator) in the general election on November 6, 2012. After leaving office, Walsh began hosting a talk radio show. Though initially a strong supporter of Donald Trump, Walsh became increasingly critical of him and, on August 25, 2019, he announced his presidential campaign in opposition to Trump. He dropped out of the race on February 7, 2020, after a poor showing in the Iowa caucus, and subsequently left the party. He later endorsed and voted for the Democratic nominee Joe Biden; Walsh formally joined the Democratic Party in 2025.
Early life and education Walsh was born and raised in the Chicago suburb of North Barrington, the fifth of nine children of Susan (Stanley) and Charles Melville Walsh, a real estate mortgage banker who had an appraisal business. He graduated from Barrington High School in 1980, where he was the student body president and active in sports. He attended Grinnell College then earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Iowa in 1985. In the mid-1980s, he embarked on an acting career, taking lessons in stage, theater and television at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York City and Los Angeles. He completed a Master of Public Policy at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy Studies in 1991.
Early career As a social worker, Walsh worked with the Jobs for Youth program in the inner-city Chicago area, teaching high school dropouts basic academic and job skills. He later taught American government and American history at Oakton Community College and the Hebrew Theological College.
Walsh ran the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, a Chicago-based, privately funded program which grants scholarships to low-income students to attend private high schools. He raised funds for two organizations advocating school choice: the American Education Reform Council, and the Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation. In addition, Walsh raised nearly $1 million over a five-year period for the Fabretto Children's Foundation, an international charity which uses education and micro-enterprise to alleviate poverty among Nicaraguan children.
Walsh worked on state and local government policy issues for the Heartland Institute, a libertarian free-market think tank based in Chicago. He helped launch conservative organizations that seek to limit government and elect fiscal conservatives to state legislatures such as the Legislative Education Action Drive and the Americans for Limited Government. He also did consulting work with the United Republican Fund, an Illinois political action committee helping to elect Republican state legislators.
Walsh has raised venture capital for a living, according to the Chicago Tribune, with his campaign website indicating that he worked for Ravenswood Advisors, a Chicago boutique investment banking group which raised early-stage investment capital for new and small businesses. It was reported that Walsh earned $30,000 to $40,000 a year in the past. In 2010, he had a negative net worth of $317,498 according to OpenSecrets.
Political career
Campaigns 1996
Walsh won the Republican nomination for Illinois's 9th congressional district and faced longtime Democratic liberal incumbent Sidney R. Yates, who was 87 years old, in the general election. Walsh campaigned by riding his bicycle through the district. He engaged in self-admitted "outrageous" stunts during the campaign which included paying the doorman at Yates's Chicago apartment building $1,000 for being the first person to spot Yates in his district, and throwing a birthday party for Yates that included a cake decorated with 87 candles. Walsh denied he was trying to play the "age card". Yates responded that his own age was not a factor, and that Walsh was too young and inexperienced for the job. Yates also commented that the district was too liberal for Walsh, and tried to tie Walsh to the conservative speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. In response, Walsh distanced himself from Gingrich and said he considered himself a "moderate Republican;" he also ran as a pro-choice candidate in the liberal-leaning district, and described himself as "the most gay friendly Republican around". Yates defeated Walsh 63%–37%.
1998 In 1998, Walsh challenged incumbent Democrat Jeffrey Schoenberg for the 58th district seat in the Illinois House of Representatives, which represents the Chicago North Shore suburbs of Wilmette and Evanston, Illinois. Walsh again ran as pro-choice on abortion. He drove a yellow school bus throughout the district during his campaign to focus attention on the issue of public school funding. He criticized Schoenberg for voting in favor of Republican governor Jim Edgar's school-funding reform bill that would have increased state income taxes but given property tax relief to North Shore homeowners. Walsh lost to Schoenberg, 62%–38%.
United States Representative
Elections 2010
On September 28, 2009, Walsh launched an exploratory committee to run for the United States House of Representatives in the . The district included parts of the northwest Chicago suburbs, such as Arlington Heights, Schaumburg, Gurnee, Palatine, Mundelein, Zion, Barrington, Woodstock and Walsh's home in McHenry. It had long been reckoned as the most Republican district in the Chicago area, and by some measures in all of Illinois. However, in 2004, Democrat Melissa Bean had ousted 36-year Republican incumbent Phil Crane in a substantial upset, ending seventy years of Republican control.
In February 2010, Walsh won the Republican primary election, taking about 34 percent of the vote in a six-person field and moving into the district from Winnetka in April. The Republican establishment refused to put much stock into the district with National Republican Congressional Committee member Tom Erickson, saying, "In the primary, we had really liked Dirk Beveridge or Maria Rodriguez. Those are the two candidates who we thought really had the potential to make this a very competitive race." Walsh's campaign responded that the GOP establishment was "a bit tone deaf when it comes to independent, conservative reform candidates".
Walsh advanced to face Bean in the general election. In 2006, Bean had been re-elected with 51% and in 2008 with 60% of the vote. Bean was endorsed by the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Herald, and the Lake County News-Sun. Walsh criticized Bean for her 2010 votes in favor of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and against the Stupak–Pitts Amendment that would have prohibited the use of federal funds to cover any part of the cost of any health plan that included coverage of abortion. He described himself as a Tea Party conservative activist and obtained endorsements from two Tea Party organizations, conservative radio talk show host Tom Roeser, and many others.
The national Democratic and Republican parties did not compete or spend any money in the district, and the state GOP did not help Walsh. As a result, during the 2010 election cycle, Walsh's campaign raised only one-quarter as much as Bean's. He spent about $603,000 and ended the campaign about $362,000 in debt according to campaign finance reports, (with much of the debt due to post election ballot counting of the close race). As late as October, The New York Times forecast that Bean had an 88 percent chance at winning re-election. Even CQ Politics had the election as "Safe Democratic". Despite the lack of funding and his long-shot status, Walsh narrowly defeated Bean by a margin of 0.1% or 291 votes. The race was not called until two weeks after Election Day when provisional ballots were counted. It appeared that Green Party candidate Bill Scheurer was a factor in the race; he tallied 6,400 votes, far more than Walsh's margin of victory.
Political positions
In his failed 1996 congressional bid, Walsh was more socially liberal, favoring abortion rights and gun control. By 2010, his views had become more conservative. Through the decade, he took some moderate positions and reversed some of his previously conservative positions.
Economics On taxes, Walsh stated he favors extending the Bush tax cuts, abolishing the estate tax, and cutting both the capital gains and corporate tax rates. He blamed joblessness on a reluctance by small businesses to hire and traced that reluctance to an uncertainty on tax policy. In November 2011, Walsh said that the Occupy movement was composed of "generally spoiled, pampered, unfocused, clueless young people and a smattering of other people who don't understand this country and are advocating anti-American solutions." When a constituent pointed out that veterans have also taken part in the Occupy movement, Walsh responded, "I don't know how many veterans are part of the Occupy protest. I can't imagine it's many. But anyone who would advocate socialist solutions to certain problems in this country ... they don't understand this country."
Medicare and Social Security On entitlement reform, he suggested cuts would have to be made. "The first thing we need to do is acknowledge that everybody is going to have to give on Social Security reform and Medicare reform," he said. Walsh opposes the extension of unemployment benefits. He said the benefits have already been extended for too long and that attention should be paid to the cost. Following President Obama's 2011 State of the Union address, Walsh remarked that he did not believe there should be a social safety net because it is not in the Constitution.
Environment On global warming, he described the science behind it as "not definitive" and that U.S. economic interests should come first in any discussion of climate agreements.
Immigration