DNC chair frontrunner offers ‘uncomfortable’ advice to Democrats after crushing loss to Trump
The candidate considered the frontrunner in the race to chair the Democratic National Committee is proposing a “massive narrative and branding project” to boost the party’s image in the wake of last month’s election losses.
Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair Ken Martin, a DNC vice chair who has led the association of state Democratic Party chairs, on Tuesday unveiled a 10-point memo titled “A New DNC Framework.”
Martin’s memo calls on Democrats to “show up in nontraditional and uncomfortable media spaces on a regular basis, increase outreach to local messengers and trusted validators, and create our own platforms for authentic engagement.”
Democrats suffered major setbacks up and down the ballot in the 2024 elections, as former President Trump recaptured the White House, and the GOP flipped the Senate and held onto their fragile majority in the House.
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The Trump campaign and Republicans’ aggressive strategy of appearances on podcasts and other non-traditional media is credited, in part, for the gains they made in winning the support of working class, minority, younger and low-propensity voters.
Martin, who is courting state Democratic Party officials this week as they huddle in Phoenix, Arizona, is also calling for themes others in the party have pushed, including competing in all 57 states and territories.
“If we’re going to be a national party, we need to compete everywhere,” Martin emphasizes.
He also calls for year-round organizing in every county in the country, contesting races all the way down the ballot, and energizing youth mobilization.
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Martin lamented that “the majority of Americans now believe the Republican Party best represents the interests of the working class and the poor, and the Democratic Party is the party of the wealthy and the elites. It’s a damning indictment on our party brand.”
And he urged that “we must be willing to dig deep and recenter the Democratic agenda to unite families across race, age, background, and class.”
Martin unveiled his plan on the same day that DNC chair Jaime Harrison released a memo highlighting that the party’s down-ballot victories last month offer a road map to greater electoral success in the future.
Harrison is not seeking a second straight four-year term steering the national party committee. The next chair will be chosen by the roughly 450 voting members of the national party committee when they meet at the beginning of February at National Harbor in Maryland for the DNC’s winter meeting.
Martin appears to be the early frontrunner in the race, and his campaign says he has the backing of at least 100 DNC voting members, which is nearly half of what a candidate needs to secure the chair.
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Also running and considered competitive is Ben Wikler, who’s chaired the state Democratic Party in battleground Wisconsin for five years and is well known by the voting members.
“Today, the country we love needs the Democratic Party to be stronger. To unite. To fight. And to win,” Wikler emphasized on Sunday in a video as he launched his bid.
A party insider who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely told Fox News that “the DNC insiders/establishment have significant influence over this membership, so the race will be very close.”
Martin O’Malley, the former two-term Maryland governor and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate who served as commissioner of the Social Security Administration the past year, jumped into the race last week, a day before Martin.
Also running are New York state Sen. James Skoufis and former U.S. Senate candidate from Maryland Robert Houton.
The field of five DNC chair candidates is expected to grow.
As Fox News and other news organizations reported last month, Rahm Emanuel, the ambassador to Japan, has been quietly reaching out to DNC committee members as he contemplates a bid. Emanuel is a former two-term Chicago mayor who earlier served as White House chief of staff in President Obama’s administration and as a member of Congress.
Also eyeing the chair are former New York State assembly member Michael Blake, Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, and Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist who describes himself as “non-college-educated Mexican redneck.”
A DNC voting member granted anonymity to speak more freely told Fox News, “I’m open to talking to whomever is interested in this, to listen to their vision and plan, and listen to people’s different takes on what we need to do.”
“I think the race is wide open,” the member added.