[7] Nicușor Dan was one of the creators and the first administrative director of the Școala Normală Superioară București [ro], a university set up on the model of the French École Normale Supérieure within the Romanian Academy's Institute of Mathematics.

[4] Nicușor Dan announced his candidacy for Mayor of Bucharest in November 2011 at a café on Arthur Verona street, with just a few guests, among which Theodor Paleologu, a historian and Member of Parliament.

[11] Among his proposed projects are the creation of a light rail infrastructure over the existing rail lines in Bucharest, creating an infrastructure for prioritizing public transport over other traffic in intersections, consolidating buildings that are likely to be affected by earthquakes, protecting the urban green space and clearing illegal buildings from parks.

[15] Dan gained the support of some journalists who wrote about him in op-eds from several newspapers: Andrei Crăciun of Adevărul saw in him "a Don Quijote untouched by the vulgar lard of undeserved riches" and "a person who works against the system".

[17] Neculai Constantin Munteanu from Radio Free Europe wrote that he supports Dan for his unselfish way of caring about Bucharest and that his opponents are "comedians", for which one can "admire the imposture, ludicrousness, and incompetence".

[23][24] With Nicușor Dan at the top of the candidate list, USR gained 8.92% of the vote in the Senate race and 8.87% in the Chamber of Deputies, which made them the third largest party in Romania.

In 2017, anti-same-sex pressure group Coaliția pentru Familie managed to raise the necessary number of signatures to organize a referendum that would change the part of the Romanian Constitution dealing with marriage, with the hope of redefining it as "between a man and a woman".

Due to a quirk in the Romanian electoral law, USR required his signature when they attempted to legally register their alliance with the Freedom, Unity and Solidarity Party (PLUS).

In order to help his former party, in March 2019 Dan briefly rejoined USR as a common member, gave the necessary signature and then resigned for a second time.

Additionally, the REPER party, headed by former PLUS leader Dacian Cioloș, supported Nicușor Dan, but was not part of ADU.

Having learned of this, in the morning of the same day Nicușor Dan went himself to the square, together with his staff and Bucharest local police agents, to tell the workers present to halt the procedure as it did not follow the rule of law; Daniel Băluță did not wait to get all permits necessary for starting the work for the foundation (these include permissions from Metrorex and Apa Nova (Bucharest's water and sewage administration institution, involved due to Dâmbovița's course right through the middle of Piața Unirii) and it was suspected to be a way for the PSD mayor to rush the works in order to redirect financial funds.

Dan himself called the National Police and after a few more exchanges, left the park in order to retrieve certain documents attesting to the fact that the City Hall of Bucharest had the absolute right to investigate the construction as it was its property, and not Sector 4's.

Sector 4 local police again blocked the entrance of the bulldozers, some agents hurling insults and being physically aggressive to the bulldozer operators, which the wide public of Bucharest viewed as proof of the agents being members of the Sector 4 Clanul Sportivilor, an organization of the Romanian mafia operating mainly in the southern part of Bucharest who were long suspected to work with Daniel Băluță himself.

[42] Eventually, Daniel Băluță conceded and told the construction workers and police agents to retreat, as Romanian Prime-minister Marcel Ciolacu himself intervened.

[43] Increase in popularity, political influence[44] and candidacy for the 2025 presidential elections[45] After the Piața Unirii incident, Dan was viewed even more favorably by the general populace of Bucharest, being called a bulwark against the widespread corruption of the country and the only one to effectively stand against the PSD-PNL coalition.

It is widely believed that Lasconi and Nicușor Dan appeal to similar voter demographics, with both targeting liberal, progressive, moderate, pro-European, and anti-PSD/anti-PNL camps.

In an article published in 2000 in the conservative weekly Dilema, Nicușor Dan stated that "I am against the acceptance of homosexual behavior in public spaces, in Romania.

Dan distanced himself from his previous statements on several occasions, claiming that he is not homophobic and that his opinion on the matter has changed considerably in the following years.