Nearly three months after Democrats’ major setbacks up and down the ballot in the 2024 elections, the party gathers on Saturday to choose new leadership.
It’s the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) first formal step to try and emerge from the political wilderness and rebound in upcoming elections after President Donald Trump recaptured the White House and Republicans flipped the Senate, held onto their fragile majority in the House and made major gains with working-class, minority and younger voters.
And with no clear leader in the party, the next DNC chair will become the de facto face of Democrats from coast to coast and will make major decisions on messaging, strategy, infrastructure and where to spend millions in political contributions.
“It’s an important opportunity for us to not only refocus the party and what we present to voters, but also an opportunity for us to look at how we internally govern ourselves,” longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley told Fox News.
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The eight candidates vying for Democratic National Committee chair sit for a forum that was repeatedly interrupted by protesters at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Jan. 30, 2025. (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser)
Buckley, a former DNC vice chair, said he’s “very excited about the potential of great reform within the party.” And he emphasized he hoped for “significantly more support for the state parties. That’s going to be a critical step towards our return to majority status.”
Eight candidates are vying to succeed DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, who decided against seeking a second straight four-year term steering the national party committee.
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The next chair, as well as vice chairs and other officers, will be chosen by the roughly 450 DNC voting members gathered for the party’s winter meeting, which is being held this year at National Harbor just outside Washington, D.C.
Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chair Ken Martin, a DNC vice chair who has led the association of state Democratic Party chairs, is considered to be the frontrunner for chair heading into Saturday’s election, with Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler close behind.
Minnesota Democratic Party chair Ken Martin (left) and Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler (right), two leading contenders in the Democratic National Committee chair race, at the DNC executive committee meeting Dec. 12, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser)
Martin recently told Fox News Digital that if he becomes chair, the first thing he would do is “figure out a plan to win. And we need to start writing that plan, making sure we’re looking underneath the hood. How much money do we have at the party? What are the contracts? What contracts do we need to get rid of? And, frankly, bringing all of our stakeholder groups together. That’s the biggest thing.”
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Wikler, in a Fox News Digital interview, emphasized that the party needs to show voters “that we’re fighting for them against those who would try to rig the economy for those at the very top and deliver that message in places where people aren’t paying attention to politics much. But they know what they’re struggling with in their own lives.”
Wikler, who pointed to the success of Democrats in his home state, a crucial battleground, added, “That means communicating in clear language in a way that shows people that we see them. And with our actions showing that we’re fighting for them to bring costs down and make sure that working people have a fair shot in this country.”
Also considered competitive is Martin O’Malley, the former two-term Maryland governor and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate who served as commissioner of the Social Security Administration during former President Biden’s last year in office.
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O’Malley told Fox News Digital he’s running for DNC chair “because I love my country, and the only way we’re going to save the Republic is if the Democratic Party gets itself battle-ready as quickly as possible.”
Pointing to his past steering the Democratic Governors Association, he noted, “I’m the only candidate that’s actually chaired a national committee — the Democratic Governors — and I’m the only candidate that’s actually run for office and been elected to office, city council, mayor, governor. And we need to recruit people all across the ballot in order to bring our party back.”
Among the longer-shot candidates for chair are late entry Faiz Shakir, who ran the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign of progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Marianne Williamson, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2020 and 2024 Democratic presidential nominations.
“This party’s not going to rise up unless there’s some deeper honesty,” Williamson told reporters Thursday after the final chair election forum, as she took aim at the Democrats’ establishment.
The debate during the three-month DNC campaign sprint has mostly focused on the logistics of modern political campaigns, such as media strategy and messaging, fundraising and grassroots organizing and get-out-the-vote efforts. On those nuts-and-bolts issues, the candidates are mostly in agreement that changes are needed to win back blue-collar voters who now support Republicans.
But the final forum included a heavy focus on systemic racism and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, issues that appeared to hurt Democrats at the ballot box in November.
A protester is removed by security after heckling at a Democratic National Committee chair election debate at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Jan. 30, 2025 (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser)
And the forum, moderated and carried live on MSNBC and held at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., devolved into chaos early on as a wave of left-wing protesters repeatedly interrupted the primetime event, heckling over concerns of climate change and billionaires’ influence in America’s elections before they were forcibly removed by security.
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The chair election comes as a new national poll spells more trouble for the Democrats.
Only 31% of respondents in a Quinnipiac University survey conducted over the past week had a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party, with 57% seeing the party in an unfavorable light.
“This is the highest percentage of voters having an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party since the Quinnipiac University Poll began asking this question,” the survey’s release noted.
Meanwhile, 43% of those questioned had a favorable view of the GOP, with 45% holding an unfavorable opinion, which was the highest favorable opinion for the Republican Party ever in Quinnipiac polling.
