New York state Sen. James Skoufis is dropping out of the Democratic Nationwide Committee chair’s race — and has endorsed Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Occasion Chair Ken Martin.
In a press release shared first with POLITICO, Skoufis, a longshot contender who pitched himself as a celebration outsider, stated Martin “will re-center what’s most necessary for our get together: increasing the map and rebuilding our once-big Democratic tent by taking energy exterior of the DC Beltway and kicking the out-of-touch advisor class to the curb.”
Skoufis, who gained a state Senate district that Donald Trump held by double-digits in 2024, commonly accused the Washington, D.C., advisor class throughout his DNC candidacy of main the get together astray — a line that his opponents echoed within the first candidate discussion board on Saturday. Although Skoufis appeared to have minimal assist for his personal marketing campaign, his endorsement was the most recent in a string of them for Martin, a number one contender who has rolled out assist from greater than 50 state get together chairs and vice chairs.
Skoufis’ exit comes as Faiz Shakir, who led Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential marketing campaign, entered the race on Wednesday — shaking up a contest that’s largely targeted on get together mechanics over ideology. Shakir, a longtime progressive strategist, vented his disappointment over a “lack of imaginative and prescient and conviction for what to do to revive a deeply broken Democratic model” in a letter to DNC members, prompting him to get into the race.
However Martin and Wisconsin Democratic Occasion Chair Ben Wikler, who’re broadly seen by get together insiders because the favorites, have rolled up vital blocs of assist among the many 448 DNC members, who will vote on Feb. 1. These candidates and others, together with former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, will seem for his or her second DNC-sanctioned discussion board in Michigan on Thursday. However Shakir didn’t qualify for it.
In his personal assertion accepting the endorsement, Martin praised Skoufis as “an efficient, contemporary messenger who has constructed the various coalitions wanted to assist Democrats win in deep pink districts. He is a useful asset to as we speak’s Democratic Occasion,” including he’s “grateful for his endorsement and honored to have him as an advocate for my marketing campaign.”
