WASHINGTON – The Democratic Party faces existential questions after Donald Trump's resounding victory. One of the first: Who will lead it?
Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison is not expected to seek a second term, opening a job that must be filled by March 1, according to the party's bylaws. Who takes the position will speak volumes about how the party wants to present itself going forward and what issues members believe hampered Democrats against Trump in 2024.
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The incoming chair will also oversee the party’s 2028 nominating process, a complex and contentious exercise that will make that person central to the next presidential election. Harrison was derided for having backed President Joe Biden even as many Democratic voters questioned whether the president should run again. He was accused after Biden's disastrous debate performance of pushing for a virtual roll call before Biden chose to withdraw.
The early debate over Harrison's replacement appears to be set on a clear dividing line: Do Democrats need an operative with clear skills and experience in reshaping the party’s infrastructure? Or does the party need a communicator who can respond to everything the Trump administration plans to do and can sell Democratic ideas to a public that rejected them at the ballot box?
“They have to find someone from outside Washington who understands politics at the grassroots level,” said Howard Dean, a former chair who took the position after George W. Bush won a second term as president. Dean said he has received calls from members urging him to run, but he has no plans to do so. “The DNC is often a creature of Washington, which is a major problem. … You have to have a DNC that is big enough to include the whole country.”
Top Democrats are scheduled to meet privately in Scottsdale, Arizona, in mid-December. Already, there is speculation among attendees that serious candidates would attend the meeting or at least be announced by then.
In the wake of Tuesday’s thrashing, there is a sense, at least among some of the DNC’s rank-and-file, that the committee’s 440-plus voting members may be more likely to embrace an outsider with strong ties to the party’s formal establishment. Some also would want the new chair to fill a full-time role, which would present challenges to a current officeholder.
“As the party looks to the future, we must be positioned for the important work of unifying and strengthening Democrats at all levels, and holding Trump’s Republican Party accountable for the harms it will inflict on the American people,” said Rosemary Boeglin, a spokesperson for the committee. “In the coming weeks, we will lay out a process for electing a new Chair to guide us on that path forward.”
The potential candidates, from Beto to Buttigieg
The more high-profile leaders on the minds of multiple top Democrats include Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, former Georgia lawmaker Stacey Abrams, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg; and Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor and current commissioner of the Social Security Administration.
The lower-profile route features state party chairs Ken Martin, chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and a vice chair of the national party; Ben Wikler, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin; and Michael Blake, a former vice chair of the party.
Murphy and O’Malley have already been having early discussions with DNC members and donors over the last day or so, according to people with direct knowledge of the outreach. It is unclear whether they will enter the race.
O’Rourke, said a person familiar with his thinking but granted anonymity to speak openly, is being asked to run by donors and operatives.
Beshear, a 46-year-old two-term Democratic governor in a state Trump twice carried by more than 25 points, has no interest in the chairmanship, according to a person close to him granted anonymity to share internal discussions.
Buttigieg, who unsuccessfully ran for chair in 2017, is not exploring a run, said a person close to the secretary granted anonymity to speak openly about his thinking.
And a source close to Abrams, granted anonymity to speak openly, said she was not interested in becoming chair.
Martin, who reached out to every state party chair, vice chair and executive director the day before the election, began a new round of temperature-taking phone calls on Friday.
“People have approached me about running,” Martin told the Associated Press. “I have not decided at this point.”
Wikler did not respond to questions about the position, but in the wake of losses across the country for Democrats, he touted what he and his team in Wisconsin accomplished.
“The red wave hit this year: a (tilde)6% national swing to Trump, from 2020 margins,” Wikler posted on X. “In Wisconsin, thousands of heroes pulled the swing down to 1.5%. More D votes statewide & in 46 counties. Tammy Baldwin won. Huge wins in the state legislature.”
He added: “Deeply grateful to all — it mattered.”
Blake told The Associated Press on Friday that he is “seriously” considering a run.
“When we came in eight years ago, we built something that was successful and won,” Blake said, invoking his time as vice chair. “It's impossible to see what happened Tuesday and not think significant change is called for.” Blake, who once served in the New York State Assembly, also said he is weighing running for DNC chair against running for New York City mayor.
The power brokers
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who excoriated party leaders earlier in the week for abandoning working-class people, is expected to play an active role in the DNC pick — at least behind the scenes. Sanders did the same in the wake of the party’s 2016 election loss when he privately worked to boost former Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, although Ellison ultimately lost to former Labor Secretary Tom Perez.
Sanders’ allies believe that the party is taking his concerns more seriously in the wake of Tuesday’s drubbing.
Presidential losses regularly force parties to ask sweeping questions about everything from their message to their infrastructure to their core beliefs, and this loss will be no different for Democrats. After Hillary Clinton's loss in 2016, the committee was lambasted as an unprofessional organization. Those issues were central to the committee chair fight in 2017, and led the committee to rebuild during Trump's first term in office. That has created a quandary for the party now: The national committee has not garnered the kind of blame that it did after the first loss to Trump, but that also means the answers Democrats are searching for are far less clear.
Many committee members believe this is not a time for the party to focus on one specific skill set in a chair at the expense of others. Instead, this group argues, you need someone with a broad range of skills.
“It needs to be someone who can raise money. It needs to be someone who is a good communicator. And it needs to be someone who can look towards modernization,” said Maria Cardona, a longtime Democratic operative and DNC member who is against the chair being a current elected official.
“As opposed to Trump, we believe in the peaceful transfer of power,” Cardona said. “But we are not going to concede the fight.”