[19] In 1971, Daniels earned a Bachelor's degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University after completing a senior thesis titled "The Politics of Metropolitanization: City-County Consolidation in Indianapolis, Indiana".

[25] Daniels had his first experience in politics while still a teenager when, in 1968, he worked on the unsuccessful campaign of fellow Hoosier and Princeton alumnus William Ruckelshaus, who was running for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Democrat Birch Bayh.

[12][13][27] During his tenure Lilly pleaded guilty to two criminal misdemeanors, paid more than $2.7 billion in fines and damages, settled more than 32,000 personal injury claims—and copped to one of the largest state consumer protection cases involving a drug company in U.S.

Just before the legislation was signed by Bush, Republican lawmakers inserted language into the bill that authorized protection from liability corporations that manufactured thimerosal, a controversial vaccine preservative that has been the subject of multiple lawsuits.

[57] Three months later, on March 25, 2003, five days after the start of the invasion, President Bush requested $53 billion through an emergency supplemental appropriation to cover operational expenses in Iraq until September 30 of that year.

Campaign ads by Kernan and the Democratic Party attempted to tie Daniels to number of issues—his jail time for marijuana use; a stock sale leading to speculations of insider trading; and, because of his role at Eli Lilly, the high cost of prescription drugs.

[86] In June 2015, Ken Daley, the new CEO of the Indiana Toll Road Concession Company, announced that all of the original 1955 travel plazas would be demolished and replaced within the next five years.

[95] On November 4, 2008, Daniels defeated Democratic candidate Jill Long Thompson and was elected to a second term as governor with 57.8% of votes, despite Barack Obama carrying the state in the presidential race.

[117] In response to the controversy, Daniels's office issued a statement that included several quotes that had also appeared in an article published in Reason magazine by journalist Michael Moynihan.

Daniels later revised his statement stating he "axed the words of a Stanford University professor who expressed irritation with being included in the original remarks" while also removing the quotes that appeared in the Reason article.

[124][125] On April 27, 2011, the Indiana legislature passed a bill authored by State Representative Eric Turner that prohibited taxpayer dollars from supporting organizations that performed abortions.

[137] The Daniels administration maintained that the plant would create jobs in an economically depressed part of the state and offer environmental benefits through an in-state energy source.

[141] Although Daniels had claimed to be reluctant to seek higher office, many media outlets, including Politico, The Weekly Standard, Forbes, The Washington Post, CNN, The Economist, and The Indianapolis Star began to speculate that Daniels intended to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2012 after he joined the national debate on cap and trade legislation by penning a response in The Wall Street Journal to policies espoused by the Democratic-majority Congress and the White House in August 2010.

"[149] In February 2011, David Brooks of The New York Times described Daniels as the "Party's strongest [would be] candidate", predicting that he "couldn't match Obama in grace and elegance, but he could on substance.

[156] Later in May, as the Republican field began to resolve with announcements and withdrawals of other candidates, Time said, "Even setting aside his somewhat unusual family situation, Daniels would need to hurry to put together an organization" and raise enough money if he intended to run.

The committee was composed of 14 individuals: 5 members of the faculty, 3 administrators, 4 trustees, a student government leader and William Funk, the CEO of an executive search firm that has recruited hundreds of university presidents.

In preparation for his term as President of Purdue University, Daniels stopped participating in partisan political activity during the 2012 election cycle and focused instead on issues related to higher education and fiscal matters.

[166] Daniels has continued this practice, opting to send Open Letters to the Purdue community instead of giving a formal State of the University speech, as is more common in higher education.

Daniels called the posters, left by a racist organization, a "transparent effort to bait people into overreacting, thereby giving a minuscule fringe group attention it does not deserve, and that we decline to do".

[177] The University Senate's Equity and Diversity Committee issued a statement calling Daniels's phrasing "problematic" stating, "The idea that there is a scarcity of leading African American scholars is simply not true".

[177] In a New York Times op-ed, G. Gabrielle Starr, president of Pomona College, wrote, "In just a few sentences, Mr. Daniels seemed to question the possibility of sustained black excellence:.

In order to make up for the lost revenue from tuition freezes, Daniels and the Purdue Board of Trustees[193] focused on finding operating efficiencies such as consolidating information technology data centers, investing cash reserves, and switching to a consumer-driven health plan for employees.

[194] Daniels also reduced meal plan rates for students by 10 percent, froze housing costs, and cut the university's cooperative education fees which had previously increased every year.

[204] Daniels announced in April 2020 that Purdue intended to welcome students back on campus in the fall, becoming one of the earliest university leaders to do so, saying it would be an "unacceptable breach of duty" to not reopen.

[206] In May 2020, while on CNN, Daniels dismissed the criticisms of a tenured engineering education professor, saying she represented a "very tiny minority view" ... "Frankly, not from the most scientifically-credible corner of our very STEM-based campus".

Shortly after the intended acquisition was announced, 319 signed a petition opposing the deal citing numerous concerns, including, "Purdue University is not creating new access to higher education but merely becoming the owner of a preexisting corporation, with some danger to Purdue's current reputation and operation" and "The business model of Kaplan University rests upon adult learners and is completely dependent on the federal loans that most are required to take to fund their educations."

The American Association of University Professors criticized PG's (now former) arbitration requirement for students calling the policy "the stuff of predatory for-profit colleges, not a leading public research institution".

Robert Shireman, a former deputy undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Education, also criticized the move saying the colleges merely claimed nonprofit status while continuing to enrich Kaplan, Inc., company officials.

[216][217] Although Daniels' guaranteed base pay would never climb higher than $435,000, the amount available to be earned through performance metrics increased over the years and the trustees occasionally gave him a retention bonus that reached as high as $250,000 to try and keep him at Purdue.

[222] As Daniels left Purdue, he openly explored a run for the U.S. Senate but ultimately declined, saying in a statement, "it's just not the job for me, not the town for me, and not the life I want to live at this point ... some people seek public office to be something, others to do something.