Supporters and volunteers of DNC chair candidate Ken Martin cheer exterior of the ballroom within the hours previous to the votes for positions on the Democratic Nationwide Committee Winter Assembly on the Gaylord Nationwide Resort and Conference Heart in Nationwide Harbor, Maryland, Saturday, February 1, 2025.
(Rod Lamkey Jr. / AP Photograph)
Within the Democratic Celebration’s first official response to the devastating setbacks it suffered within the 2024 presidential and congressional elections, members of the Democratic Nationwide Committee (DNC) elected Ken Martin as their chair on February 1. Martin, the well-regarded chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Celebration (DFL), gained after talking frankly to committee members concerning the get together’s tough circumstances. “We received punched within the mouth in November,” he mentioned. “Lots of people on this nation proper now are going to want us to stroll and chew gum on the similar time—which means we’re going to should struggle the extremes of Donald Trump whereas we make a case in each crimson and blue states about why they need to belief us with their votes. When the Trump agenda fails Individuals—which it definitely will, and already has—we’ve got to be there with the professional different to this chaos.”
That was an implicit acknowledgment of the error Democrats made in 2024, once they spent a lot time speaking concerning the threats posed by Trump that there was little house left to speak about what the get together provided anxious working households. At a time when 74 % of Individuals had been saying they weren’t proud of the nation’s course, Trump and the Republicans—as merciless and excessive as they’re—did a greater job of channeling that frustration than the Democrats. This allowed Trump to safe extra assist from working-class, younger, and Latino voters, amongst others, than ought to ever have been the case. However the greater story, as The New York Instances famous, was that “many Democrats sat this election out, presumably turned off by each candidates.”
Martin was not the one DNC candidate to acknowledge that the Democrats want a bolder pro-worker agenda. His foremost rival, Wisconsin Democratic Celebration chair Ben Wikler, mentioned, “Dropping working-class voters in 2024 needs to be a wake-up name for us as a celebration.” Wikler was backed by key union leaders, Senate minority chief Chuck Schumer, Home minority chief Hakeem Jeffries, former Home speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Democratic governors similar to Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer. However that big-name assist garnered solely 134½ DNC votes for the Wisconsinite, versus 246½ votes for Martin.
The Minnesotan benefited from the truth that he’s been within the trenches for years as head of the Affiliation of State Democratic Chairs. However because the vote approached, he additionally leaned into an urgently populist message that resonated with grassroots Democrats, who’re exasperated with out-of-touch DC-based strategists and are enthusiastic about transferring assets into state events; taking bolder stands on get together priorities similar to expanded entry to healthcare and childcare, local weather, and labor rights; forging multi-racial, multiethnic, multigenerational city and rural coalitions; and distinguishing the Democrats from the Republicans on financial points.
Highlighting Martin’s report in Minnesota, the place the DFL has gained 25 statewide elections in a row, Consultant Ilhan Omar (D-MN) mentioned that Martin is “an organizer at coronary heart and has been on the entrance strains of battles on behalf of working folks, which is precisely what the Democratic Celebration wants proper now.” At a degree “when so many citizens really feel disconnected from politics,” Omar mentioned, “Ken has confirmed that after we have interaction with folks year-round, put money into grassroots infrastructure, and construct actual relationships, we win.”
Replicating the Minnesota mannequin—which is rooted within the politics of the brand new chair’s mentor, Minnesota progressive Paul Wellstone—may very well be tough. The DNC has been so targeted on fundraising in recent times that it’s confronted sharp criticism from veteran committee members like James Zogby (who misplaced a bid for vice chair); they are saying the get together group is just too deferential to the calls for of billionaire donors and extremely paid consultants. Martin and Wikler each shied away from embracing probably the most sweeping calls for of reformers, together with requires banning darkish cash from Democratic primaries and any rebuff of big-money politics as specific as that of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. However Martin advised The Nation that he’s decided to place a stronger concentrate on elevating cash from small donors, and he’s gained the arrogance of activists similar to Alan Minsky, the chief director of the Progressive Democrats of America, who says the brand new chair is “able to construct a much bigger, bolder get together that reaches out to individuals who have been pissed off with each events—to construct a celebration that’s now not dominated by elites however is really our get together.”
Present Situation
Martin mentioned as a lot in his profitable attraction to the committee, which featured a mirrored image on the historic union tune “Which Facet Are You On?” “Are we on the facet of the robber baron, the ultra-wealthy billionaire, the oil-and-gas polluter, the union buster?” he requested. “Or are we on the facet of the working household, the small enterprise proprietor, the farmer, the immigrants, the scholars? Let me inform you: I do know which facet I’m on.”
If Martin can provide the Democratic Celebration that degree of readability, it will likely be able to tackle Trump and Trumpism.
