Richard D. Mahoney (born May 28, 1951) is an American politician. 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 acti ...

from 1991 until 1995. He is currently the director of the School of Public and International Affairs at

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universit ...

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

Academia

Mahoney was educated at

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

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

and

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

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

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

), the

Beijing Institute of Foreign Trade The University of International Business and Economics (UIBE; abbr. 贸大, ''Mào Dà''), is a public university, public research university specialized in undergraduate and graduate education in economics, finance, international business, ma ...

, and the

Universidad Del Pacífico – Ecuador Universidad Del Pacífico – Ecuador : Escuela de Negocios (UPACIFICO) is an Ecuadorian non-profit private university. History The ''Fundación para el Desarrollo de la Cultura Empresarial'' was founded in 1992 as a non-profit organiza ...

(

Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...

campus). He was also professor emeritus at the

Thunderbird School of Global Management Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University (or simply Thunderbird) is a global management school in Phoenix, Arizona. Founded in 1946 as an independent, private institution, it was acquired by Arizona State University ( ...

. 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 that will 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 ...

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 1988 Democratic presidential nomination until he dropped out amid revelations of extramarital affairs. ...

and

Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...

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 his resignation in 1997. A member of the Republican Party, he resigned from office following c ...

. Mahoney led gubernatorial Democrat

Terry Goddard Samuel Pearson Goddard III (born January 29, 1947) is an American attorney and politician. He served as the Mayor of Phoenix from 1984 to 1990, on the Central Arizona Water Conservation District from 2001 to 2003 and as the 24th Attorney General ...

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 and social worker who is the governor-elect of Arizona, having been elected in 2022. She has served as the 21st secretary of state of Arizona since 2019. A member of the D ...

in 2018. He ran for the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, narrowly losing the primary to

Sam Coppersmith Samuel George Coppersmith (born May 22, 1955) is an American attorney and former politician who served as the U.S. representative for Arizona's 1st congressional district from 1993 to 1995. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Early years Co ...

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 the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

for

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

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, 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, 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 a wide range of o ...

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 school, it was the first college started by members of the Church of the Brethren as a center for vocational learning for those wh ...

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