In the aftermath of the party’s terrible performance in the November elections, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) picked Minnesota party leader Ken Martin as its next national chair on Saturday. Martin has previously called for President Donald Trump to be charged for treason.
Martin’s election marks the party’s first formal attempt to recover from the November elections, in which President Donald Trump reclaimed the White House and Republicans flipped the Senate, maintained their fragile House majority, and made significant gains among working-class, minority, and younger voters.
“We have one team, the Democratic Party,” Martin declared after his triumph. “We fight for our principles. The struggle is for workers. The conflict right now is between Donald Trump and the millionaires who purchased our nation.”
Martin has chaired the alliance of state Democratic Party leaders for the past eight years while also serving as a DNC vice chair.
He defeated Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler by more than 100 votes among the 428 DNC members who voted during the party’s annual winter conference, which was held this year at National Harbor in Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C.
Martin O’Malley, the former two-term Maryland governor and 2016 Democratic presidential contender who served as Social Security Administration commissioner during former President Biden’s final year in office, finished in a distant third place.
Longshot candidates included Faiz Shakir, who led Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 Democratic presidential campaign, and Marianne Williamson, who unsuccessfully sought the 2020 and 2024 Democratic presidential primaries. Williamson backed Martin on Saturday, before to the vote.
The eight contenders in the contest were trying to succeed DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, who elected not to pursue a second consecutive four-year term as chairman of the national party committee.
With no apparent leader in the party, the next DNC chair has the potential to become the de facto face of Democrats throughout the country, making important choices on message, strategy, infrastructure, and where to spend millions in political donations.
Martin emphasized unity in his victory speech, stating that the party needs “to rebuild our coalition.”
“We need to go on offense,” Martin remarked. “We’re going to go out there and take this fight to Donald Trump and the Republicans.”
Martin has previously used tougher rhetoric against Trump.
In 2020, he described Trump as a “traitor” who should be prosecuted for treason.
“[Donald Trump] should be immediately impeached and then tried for treason,” Martin tweeted on June 29, 2020, citing an anonymously sourced news report. “His actions caused the deaths of American servicemen. “He is a traitor to our country and all who have served.”
Throughout his first term in office, Trump accused Democrats of being “un-American” and “treasonous.”
Ray Buckley, a key Martin supporter and longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair, told AWN Digital ahead of the chair election that “it’s an important opportunity for us to not only refocus the party and what we present to voters, but also to look at how we internally govern ourselves.”
Buckley, a former DNC vice chair and Martin’s predecessor as head of the state party chairmen, stated that he is “very excited about the potential for great reform within the party.” He said he hoped for “significantly more support for the state parties.” That will be a crucial step towards our return to majority status.
AWN verified that former Vice President Kamala Harris, who succeeded President Biden as the party’s 2024 standard-bearer in July, talked with Martin, Wikler, and O’Malley in the days leading up to Saturday’s election. However, Harris remained impartial in the election for party chair.
In a video address to the crowd while the vote for chair was being counted, Harris stated that the DNC had some “hard work ahead.”
However, she committed to support the party “every step of the way,” which might be a clue of her future political ambitions.
During the three-month DNC campaign sprint, the debate centered mostly on the mechanics of modern political campaigns, such as media strategy and message, financing, grassroots organization, and voter turnout initiatives. On those guts and bolts problems, the candidates were broadly in agreement that adjustments are required to reclaim blue-collar people who currently vote Republican.
However, the last conference focused heavily on race and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which looked to cost Democrats at the polls in November.
The forum, moderated and broadcast live on MSNBC and held at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., devolved into chaos early on when a wave of left-wing protesters repeatedly interrupted the primetime event, heckling over concerns about climate change and billionaires’ influence in American elections before being forcibly removed by security.
The chair election occurred as a fresh national survey predicted further difficulty for the Democrats.
A Quinnipiac University study done over the previous week found that only 31% of respondents had a positive impression of the Democratic Party, while 57% saw the party negatively.
“This is the highest percentage of voters having an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party since the Quinnipiac University Poll began asking this question,” according to the survey’s release.
Meanwhile, 43% of those polled had a positive view of the GOP, with 45% having a negative impression, the highest favorable rating for the Republican Party in Quinnipiac polling history.
