Candidates vying for leadership of the Democratic National Committee have found a common enemy in a D.C. consultant.
In the first DNC-sanctioned debate in the low-profile party chairman race held Saturday, DNC candidates spoke out against “DC insiders” that New York Sen. James Skoufis vowed to “stop.” I expressed my dissatisfaction. Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Leader Ken Martin vowed that the “D.C. consultants” “will be gone by the time I’m there.” And Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler vowed to come into 2025 with “no promises to anyone who has ever campaigned.”
Signs of the era of burnt out parties Approximately 1.5 billion dollars In the final months of the campaign, he fell short of President-elect Donald Trump. Consultants have become punching bags while the DNC candidates have largely avoided sparring with each other as the party still searches for answers to its devastating losses in 2024. They all agreed that the party needed to reestablish its identity with the working class and build a permanent campaign base across the country. However, there were some minor attacks, but no names were given.
Saturday’s forum was the first of four meetings scheduled for January ahead of the Feb. 1 DNC chairman election, as Democrats redefine their party in the second Trump era. This will be the first big decision to be made.
Here are five takeaways from the virtual forum.
paging jamie harrison
The candidates may have spent much of the 90-minute debate attacking D.C., but almost all of them pledged to move to the nation’s capital if elected. The issue has been percolating among DNC members for weeks, many of whom were dissatisfied with comments made by current DNC chair Jamie Harrison. Decision to stay in South Carolina during his tenure.
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said, “Leaders have to lead, lead and be at the center of the circle,” while Skoufis, the only incumbent running for office, is running from New York. He said he would resign. The Senate says, “The next DNC chairman must do his best.”
But Mr. Wikler, who has a young family in Wisconsin, did not agree to the move. He plans to keep a “congressional schedule” and be in Washington, D.C. “regularly,” but added, “I think there’s strength that comes from being in places where Democrats often don’t win every election.” spoke.
A field of mostly white, mostly male “bastards”
It was hard to miss behind the video conferencing boxes on YouTube strung up throughout the forum. Most of the eight-member candidates are white and most are male. With the exception of former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson and entrepreneur Quintessa Hathaway, the competition for chair does not reflect the diversity of the major parties.
The field is less reflective of the party as a whole, a fact that frustrates some Democrats.
“When you look at our party, when you look at the elected officials who have actually gotten things done and accomplished difficult things in difficult states, none of them are engaging in this conversation. No,” said Democratic campaign veteran Caitlin Regacchi. She cautioned that her comments were not aimed at the men in the field, but at broader observations. “Women are not involved in this conversation. All of our biggest and most high-profile commentators are men. All of the senators writing op-eds about the future of our party are men. And the DNC candidates They are men.”
she came back
Williamson, a best-selling self-help author, is bringing her “woo-woo” brand of politics to the speaker’s race.
As with the 2020 and 2024 bids, she has little chance of winning. But at least she makes it interesting. Describing himself as the spiritual healer the party needs, Mr Williamson said he was a victim of “those living in hardship, suffering from illness without access to medical care and lacking educational and economic opportunities”. “I’ve worked very closely and personally with people.” And they didn’t feel seen by the political class. ”
Williamson said the DNC failed to push for a “strong primary” last year, brandishing an iconoclastic orthodoxy and saying that was the biggest mistake the DNC made.
“In the name of saving democracy, we ourselves suppressed democracy,” she said.
It’s the economy, idiot.
There was a lot of lip service to what Democrats widely believe was one of the main reasons for their loss in last year’s elections: the party’s economic message, or lack thereof.
O’Malley called the party’s “biggest mistake” being that Democrats have been cut off from the American people’s dinner table. “There were millions of Americans who didn’t know we were fighting for working families,” Wikler lamented. And Martin said voters’ perception that Republicans, not Democrats, best represent the working class (a belief that has only been reinforced by Democrats’ overperformance with wealthy households and college-educated voters) “This is a terrible indictment of our party’s brand,” he said. ”
But not many concrete solutions to win back voters were offered Saturday, as Democrats diagnose a serious flaw in their messaging but have yet to find a way to fix it. It shows that. This is a potentially big problem for the party, as President Trump seeks to take credit for an economy that has begun to improve under President Joe Biden.
O’Malley called on the next DNC chair to “reaffirm their dedication” to being a party focused on the economic security of the nation. Martin said the solution lies in organizing year-round in key communities. And Wikler’s suggestion for a course correction is to “communicate everywhere,” from conservative media to non-traditional platforms.
So much for resistance.
For a party that has spent much of the past decade fighting unequivocally against President Trump, the candidates vying to lead the DNC have said little about the president-elect.
Let’s call it a sign of the times.
Indeed, O’Malley concluded, the next DNC chair must “confront Trump and save our country.” And Mr. Skoufis reiterated the lessons he learned from running for and winning in a state Senate district that Mr. Trump ran easily.
But as Democrats readjust their resistance to Trump to reflect the political landscape that has changed during his two terms in office, those looking to lead the party’s next chapter are watching. It seems so.
