Ken Martin, chair of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor party, won the crowded race to become the next chair of the Democratic National Committee on Saturday.
The move provides Martin with a powerful perch to determine the messaging and trajectory of a party that is still reeling from its extensive losses in the November election and confronting four more years of Donald Trump’s leadership.
Martin managed to win a majority of support from the committee’s voting members, who convened in National Harbor, Maryland, on Saturday to fill several key leadership roles. Martin won outright on the first ballot, capturing 246.5 votes of the 428 ballots cast; his closest competitor – Ben Wikler, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic party – won 134.5 votes on the first ballot.
“Thank you to the DNC members who have put their faith in my vision for our party,” Martin said in his victory speech.
“We’re going to get to work. We’re going to fight; we’re going to go out there and take this fight to Donald Trump and the Republicans, and we’re going to fight for working people again in this party.”
A longtime state leader with extensive ties within the Democratic National Committee, Martin inherits a party that appears disillusioned and despondent in the wake of Trump’s victory. The outgoing chair, Jaime Harrison of South Carolina, chose not to seek re-election after the party lost not only the White House but both chambers of Congress in the November elections.
Martin emerged victorious from a crowded field of candidates that largely agreed on the major structural and reputational challenges facing the Democratic party as Trump begins his second term in the White House. Most chair candidates emphasized the need to reconnect with the working-class Americans who have moved sharply to the right and to find more effective means of communicating their values to voters.
Martin’s supporters touted his victory as a promising first step to rebuilding the party and winning back young and working-class communities, where Trump made strong inroads in November. Martin’s first major test will come next year, as Democrats attempt to regain control of the House of Representatives, where Republicans currently hold a narrow advantage.
“Ken Martin leading the DNC is a big step to building a party that can energize young voters and working-class voters so that we can defeat the far-right,” said Stevie O’Hanlon, political director of the youth climate group Sunrise Movement. “Under Ken Martin, the Minnesota DFL won a trifecta and immediately pursued a populist agenda that should have set a model for Democrats nationally.”
But Wikler’s supporters expressed severe disappointment over his loss, framing Martin’s victory as the perpetuation of a dangerous status quo that would further damage the Democratic party’s brand with voters.
“This is an insider’s game,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which endorsed Wikler. “A perfectly fine longtime insider won, but we missed a transformational leader at a time when we need to show voters Democrats are doing things differently. Everyone wishes Ken the best.”
In his victory speech, Martin pledged to unify Democrats and incorporate the best ideas from his competitors in the chair race to ensure a stronger party moving forward.
“We’re going to bring them into this great party,” Martin said. “We’re going to unify this party together, and we’re all going to roll up our sleeves together to build this party.”
It remains unclear how effective the next chair will be in implementing his agenda. In recent years, the committee has mostly served as an administrative body focused on fundraising, coordinating among state parties and setting rules for presidential primaries.
Faiz Shakir, the former campaign manager for Bernie Sanders who launched a last-minute and ultimately unsuccessful campaign for the chair role, recently told the Guardian that the committee must seize this opportunity to move in a bolder direction.
“When Democrats have a Democratic president in charge, it is often the case that [the Democratic National Committee] is working at the behest of the president of the United States,” Shakir said. “But now, when we don’t have the presidency, you take that structure and you say: ‘What is the most important thing that we have to do?’”
Martin will begin answering that question in the coming days, and his response will help determine whether Democrats can once again capture the House majority in 2026 and eventually win back the White House in 2028.
Article by:Source: Joan E Greve
