The Democratic Nationwide Committee (DNC) on Saturday elected Minnesota occasion chief Ken Martin, who as soon as known as for President Donald Trump to be tried for treason, as its subsequent nationwide chair within the wake of the occasion’s disastrous efficiency within the November elections.
The election of Martin is the occasion’s first formal step to try to rebound from the November elections, during which President Donald Trump recaptured the White Home, and Republicans flipped the Senate, held on to their fragile majority within the Home and made main good points with working-class, minority and youthful voters.
“We now have one staff, one staff, the Democratic Occasion,” Martin stated following his victory. “The combat is for our values. The combat is for working folks. The combat proper now’s in opposition to Donald Trump and the billionaires who purchased this nation.”
Martin, over the previous eight years, has served as a DNC vice chair and has led the affiliation of state Democratic Occasion chairs.
RNC CHAIR, AFTER CRUISING TO RE-ELECTION, VOWS TO BE ‘TIP OF SPEAR’ TO PROTECT TRUMP
Minnesota Democratic Occasion chair Ken Martin (left) and Wisconsin chair Ben Wikler (proper), two main contenders within the Democratic Nationwide Committee chair race, on the DNC government committee assembly, on Dec. 12, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Fox Information – Paul Steinhauser)
He topped Wisconsin Democratic Occasion chair Ben Wikler by over 100 votes among the many 428 DNC members who solid ballots as they gathered for the occasion’s annual winter assembly, which this 12 months was held at Nationwide Harbor in Maryland, simply exterior of Washington, D.C.
Martin O’Malley, the previous two-term Maryland governor and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate who served as commissioner of the Social Safety Administration throughout former President Biden’s final 12 months in workplace, was a distant third within the voting.
Among the many longshot candidates had been Faiz Shakir, who ran the 2020 Democratic presidential marketing campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Marianne Williamson, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2020 and 2024 Democratic presidential nominations. Williamson endorsed Martin on Saturday, forward of the vote.
FINAL DNC CHAIR DEBATE ROCKED BY PROTESTS
The eight candidates within the race had been vying to succeed DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, who determined in opposition to looking for a second straight four-year time period steering the nationwide occasion committee.
With no clear chief within the occasion, the subsequent DNC chair may grow to be the de facto face of Democrats from coast to coast and can make main choices on messaging, technique, infrastructure and the place to spend thousands and thousands in political contributions.
Candidates for the Democratic Nationwide Committee participate in a discussion board at Georgetown College in Washington, D.C., on January 30, 2025. (Fox Information Digital/Paul Steinhauser)
In his victory speech, Martin confused unity and that the occasion wanted “to rebuild our coalition.”
“We have to go on offense,” Martin stated. “We’ll go on the market and take this combat to Donald Trump and the Republicans.”
Martin has used stronger language in opposition to Trump up to now.
In 2020, he known as Trump a “traitor” who needs to be tried for treason.
“[Donald Trump] needs to be instantly impeached after which placed on trial for treason,” Martin wrote on June 29, 2020, citing an anonymously sourced information story. “His actions led to the deaths of American troopers. He’s a traitor to our nation and all those that have served.”
Trump, throughout his first time period in workplace, at occasions accused Democrats of being “un-American” and “treasonous.”
Newly elected Democratic Nationwide Committee Chairman Ken Martin speaks after profitable the vote on the Democratic Nationwide Committee Winter Assembly on the Gaylord Nationwide Resort and Conference Heart in Nationwide Harbor, Md., Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025. (AP Picture/Rod Lamkey, Jr.) (AP Picture/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
An key Martin supporter, longtime New Hampshire Democratic Occasion Chair Ray Buckley, informed Fox Information Digital forward of the chair election that “it is an vital alternative for us to not solely refocus the occasion and what we current to voters, but in addition a chance for us to have a look at how we internally govern ourselves.”
WHAT RNC CHAIR WHATLEY TOLD FOX NEWS
Buckley, a former DNC vice chair and Martin’s predecessor as head of the state occasion chairs, stated he is “very excited concerning the potential of nice reform inside the occasion.” He emphasised that he hoped for “considerably extra assist for the state events. That is going to be a vital step in direction of our return to majority standing.”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who succeeded President Biden final July because the occasion’s 2024 standard-bearer, spoke with Martin, Wikler and O’Malley within the days forward of Saturday’s election, Fox Information confirmed. However Harris stayed impartial within the vote for occasion chair.
In a video message to the viewers because the vote for chair was being tabulated, Harris stated that the DNC has some “arduous work forward.”
However she pledged to be with the occasion “each step of the way in which,” which could possibly be a sign of her future political ambitions.
The controversy in the course of the three-month DNC marketing campaign dash largely targeted on the logistics of recent political campaigns, resembling media technique and messaging, fundraising and grassroots organizing and get-out-the-vote efforts. On these nuts-and-bolts points, the candidates had been largely in settlement that modifications are wanted to win again blue-collar voters who now assist Republicans.
However the last discussion board included a heavy concentrate on race and variety, fairness and inclusion (DEI) packages, points that appeared to harm Democrats on the poll field in November.
A protester is eliminated by safety after heckling at a Democratic Nationwide Committee chair election debate at Georgetown College in Washington, D.C., Jan. 30, 2025. (Fox Information/Paul Steinhauser)
The discussion board, moderated and carried stay on MSNBC and held at Georgetown College in Washington, D.C., devolved into chaos early on as a wave of left-wing protesters repeatedly interrupted the primetime occasion, heckling over considerations of local weather change and billionaires’ affect in America’s elections earlier than they had been forcibly eliminated by safety.
The chair election passed off as a brand new nationwide ballot spelled extra hassle for the Democrats.
Solely 31% of respondents in a Quinnipiac College survey performed over the previous week had a good opinion of the Democratic Occasion, with 57% seeing the occasion in an unfavorable mild.
“That is the best share of voters having an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Occasion for the reason that Quinnipiac College Ballot started asking this query,” the survey’s launch famous.
In the meantime, 43% of these questioned had a good view of the GOP, with 45% holding an unfavorable opinion, which was the best favorable opinion for the Republican Occasion ever in Quinnipiac polling.
Fox Information’ Matthew Reidy contributed to this report
