Ken Martin, the chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Social gathering — as his state’s Democratic Social gathering is thought — on Tuesday formally introduced his candidacy to go the Democratic Nationwide Committee, turning into the second particular person to unveil their bid to guide Democrats out of the wilderness.
Martin, who additionally at present serves as a vice chair of the DNC and leads the Affiliation of State Democratic Committees, is working on his file of success in Minnesota. He took over the state get together in 2011, turning it from an indebted entity right into a fundraising powerhouse that engineered complete management of Minnesota authorities — twice — and has not misplaced a statewide race on his watch.
“In every crisis, there’s an opportunity,” Martin stated. “For me, it’s really about getting the DNC out of D.C. And we build a party to win and to last.”
Martin joins Martin O’Malley, the Social Safety Administration commissioner and former Maryland governor, who introduced his bid to guide the DNC on Monday. Ben Wikler, the chair of the Democratic Social gathering of Wisconsin, is predicted to hitch the race as properly. Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Democratic advisor Chuck Rocha and former DNC Vice Chair Michael Blake are additionally contemplating runs. Mitch Landrieu, the previous New Orleans mayor and co-chair of Vice President Kamala Harris’ marketing campaign for the White Home, has dominated out working, as has New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.
Martin didn’t spell out the precise particulars of how he plans to attain his purpose of shifting the get together’s imaginative and prescient from Washington to the states, however he recognized two areas that Democrats have to work on.
First, he sees a significant deficiency in Democratic engagement in new media areas, akin to with podcasters, social media influencers and area of interest information websites.
“Most people are not getting their information, their news, from the traditional spaces that the Democratic Party is competing in,” Martin stated. “And [GOP President-elect] Donald Trump and the Republicans for the last four years have been spreading misinformation and lies on all of these different platforms that we’re not really engaged in.”
“I reject the idea that we need a wholesale change in our policies or our message.”
– Ken Martin, a candidate for Democratic Nationwide Committee chair
“And even when we were, we were just there for the final few months of the election, and we were bringing in politicians and talking heads, which were not trusted validators and messengers on these platforms,” he added. “So the reality is, we need to be more sophisticated in our tactics and our messaging operation.”
As well as, Martin cited the 2024 common election outcomes as proof {that a} vital mass of voters consider Democrats now not champion the poor and the working class. Polling certainly suggests that voters don’t see Democrats as tribunes of working folks. Harris misplaced amongst these whose households earn between $30,000 and $100,000 a 12 months, regardless that Democrat Joe Biden narrowly received them within the 2020 presidential election, in accordance with exit polling.
“That is so surprising to me, because that’s not who our party is. Our party has always fought for working-class people, has always fought for the poor and for the oppressed and the marginalized,” stated Martin, who obtained his begin in politics as an intern for Paul Wellstone’s first, populist marketing campaign for the Senate in 1990.
Martin, like O’Malley, is asking for an after-action report on what Democrats obtained proper and what they obtained incorrect on this 12 months’s presidential race. It’s one thing Martin thinks Democrats ought to undertake even after they win. However in apply, neither the DNC nor another central get together physique performed a critical postmortem evaluation following the get together’s crushing defeat in 2016.
In contrast to some inside critics who argue that Democrats have to reasonable on choose cultural points, or others who consider the get together nonetheless hasn’t embraced financial populism sufficient, Martin sees the get together’s main problem as a “branding problem.” He previewed his perspective in a Monday op-ed for Fox Information, noting that Missourians concurrently voted Republican for each statewide workplace and authorised by referendum paid sick depart, a $15 minimal wage and a constitutional proper to abortion.
“I reject the idea that we need a wholesale change in our policies or our message,” he advised HuffPost.
When a celebration occupies the White Home, a sitting president sometimes is given precedence over whom to nominate because the chair of their get together’s primary convening physique. Biden chosen Jaime Harrison, a political ally from South Carolna and former DNC affiliate chair, to guide the DNC. Harrison plans to step down upon completion of the brand new election for chair in early February.
However after a loss in a presidential election, the race for who will lead the get together in political exile usually turns into a battle over its future path and its management.
Abbie Parr/Related Press
The final time there was a aggressive race for DNC chair, in 2017, the competition grew to become one thing of an extension of the ideologically charged 2016 presidential main between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). With assist from former President Barack Obama’s staff, former Labor Secretary Tom Perez defeated the extra progressive Keith Ellison, then a U.S. consultant for Minnesota and now the state’s lawyer common. Perez’s election nonetheless led to the eventual disempowerment of superdelegates and close to elimination of caucuses within the get together’s presidential nominating course of.
There’s little indication so far that this 12 months’s race for DNC chair will tackle such an ideological tenor — although by refusing to marketing campaign as a centrist, Martin, a self-described “pro-labor progressive,” may decide up some assist on the left by default. He advised HuffPost that he “probably” wouldn’t have attended a rally for an anti-abortion Democrat as Ellison and Sanders did in Omaha, Nebraska, in 2017, however emphasised that anti-abortion Democrats and different folks exterior of the get together’s mainstream are welcome within the “big-tent party” he envisions. For example, he cited his assist for former Rep. Collin Peterson, a conservative, anti-abortion Democrat who represented northwestern Minnesota from 1991 to 2021.
Martin is as an alternative prone to be the selection of quite a few state get together chairs and different DNC members who admire his advocacy on behalf of smaller state-level events inside the nationwide construction. He helped lead a battle in opposition to the DNC’s takeover of voter information managed by state events in 2018, and was vital of Biden’s intervention to vary the presidential main schedule in December 2022.
Martin advised HuffPost that he has greater than 100 commitments of assist from voting DNC members. He would wish the votes of 227 members to get a majority of the DNC’s 453-person membership.
Martin, whose Minnesotan accent and soft-spoken demeanor disguise the combative instincts of a hardened political operative, took a preemptive swipe at those that may be searching for the chair position within the hopes of reviving their political profession.
Operating the DNC or a state get together is “the political equivalent of being a fire hydrant — you get pissed on all the time. You get none of the credit when you win, all the blame when you lose,” he stated. “So if anyone who’s seeking this job at the DNC or a state party chair’s role is in it for the glory or trying to get a platform for themselves, they’re in for a rude awakening.”
Requested why DNC members ought to again him over Wikler, who runs an precise swing-state get together, Martin responded, “The biggest difference between Ben and I is that I’m winning.”
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Wikler, who took workplace in 2019, presided over Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ reelection in 2022, a liberal takeover of the state Supreme Courtroom in 2023, and the profitable protection of Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s seat in 2024. However Wisconsin didn’t vote for Harris this 12 months, and the state Democratic Social gathering narrowly did not unseat Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in 2022.
“That’s not a shot at Ben. He’s moved the needle, and he’s a great friend and colleague. And I think he’s done an amazing job in Wisconsin,” Martin stated. “But he’s also benefited from a tremendous amount of national investment that other states, including Minnesota, haven’t.”
