For 2 months as he campaigned for Democratic Nationwide Committee chair, Ken Martin labored methodically by means of a name sheet of the committee’s 448 members, generally on the cellphone for so long as an hour, even two hours, at a time, usually till 10 p.m.
It was the form of exhaustive, behind-the-scenes operative work Martin knew finest from his time main Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Occasion and the Affiliation of State Democratic Events, the place he constructed a status as a mild-mannered tactician with a Midwestern work ethic.
Nevertheless it was one other aspect of Martin — what one DNC member, granted anonymity to talk candidly, known as his means to be a “knife-fighter” — that Democrats and their new chair himself on Saturday appeared to embrace.
“Minnesota good has two sides: Minnesota good is a pleasing, earnest means to have interaction with folks publicly, and additionally it is a non-public ruthlessness and a coldness that solely comes whenever you’ve lived in 10-degree-below climate half your life,” stated John Bisognano, who labored with Martin on the ASDC and now serves because the president of the Nationwide Democratic Redistricting Committee. “Ken will lower you if he has to, however that ruthlessness is what we have to obtain electoral success.”
Martin appeared to cement that picture in his first remarks to the press as chair on Saturday, after defeating Wisconsin Democratic Occasion Chair Ben Wikler, who had the backing of Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer and Democratic Chief Hakeem Jeffries.
“I’ve all the time considered my position as a chair of the Democratic Occasion to take the low highway, so my candidates and elected officers can take the excessive highway, that means, I’m going to throw a punch,” Martin stated.
He recommended, implicitly, that he could be a departure from the get together’s earlier chair, Jaime Harrison, telling reporters, “It is a new DNC” and that “we’re taking the gloves off.”
That form of combativeness could also be essential for Martin, as he stares down a void in management and course for his get together. Democrats enter 2025 deflated, locked out of energy in Washington after dropping floor practically in every single place in November. However the get together’s setbacks can also elevate Martin’s position inside it. As Democrats look to reassert themselves in Donald Trump’s second time period — and with no Democrat within the White Home to form the get together’s message — Martin will play a big position in setting the phrases of the 2028 presidential major, from its debate {qualifications} to its nominating calendar.
He additionally dedicated to publicly releasing a autopsy on the 2024 election, one thing the DNC didn’t do after its loss in 2016.
However Martin doesn’t come out of the DNC chair race unscathed.
“Sure, he is a knife-fighter, however the issue is, lots of people on this room really feel like that knife is of their backs,” stated a second DNC member who didn’t help Martin. “He received the job, however he didn’t essentially win everybody’s belief.”
Wikler, who super-charged the Wisconsin Democratic Occasion, was described by some DNC members as a reformer who might flip the DNC right into a extra highly effective and well-funded establishment. A former podcast host himself, Wikler was additionally seen by some as a extra forceful messenger. Martin, stated a 3rd DNC member who additionally backed Wikler and granted anonymity to talk candidly, brings “institutional data,” however is “a part of the identical group of people that have all the time been right here, who don’t wish to go away the room, and who haven’t but made it higher.”
“We’re so sure up by folks whose solely quest for relevance is the DNC title,” the member added.
Even Martin’s supporters acknowledge that he’s been working towards changing into DNC chair “for years,” as Ray Buckley, the New Hampshire Democratic Occasion chair, put it — from his appearances at obscure get together conferences and tasteless fundraising dinners to his campaigning throughout 40 states over the past election cycle.
“He is aware of the machine. He actually understands all the levers, all of the methods the assets transfer, all of the relationships with individuals who make it transfer,” stated Ron Harris, a DNC member from Minnesota.
And, Harris famous, “He is aware of the place the our bodies are buried.”
On condition that deep data, Martin has, at instances, been a ache for high management and staffers on the DNC, who squared off with Martin in 2018 throughout a number of intraparty squabbles over management of voter information — a precious asset that’s primarily held by state events. On the time, then-Democratic Nationwide Committee Chair Tom Perez accused Martin, by identify, of undermining the DNC by not retaining different state get together chairs “within the loop” of the negotiations.
In these negotiations, Martin “threw up each block possible to maintain the get together from fundamental modernizing with a view to hold their lists, despite the fact that Republicans have been already means forward of us on the time,” stated an operative who was concerned within the discussions on the time and given anonymity to debate personal conversations. “I might hope that he brings that very same loyalty to his new constituency, a broader constituency, that he now has as chair.”
Buckley, a former ASDC president, noticed it in a different way. “There are institution of us within the get together which are nonetheless not over the truth that Ken pushed again,” Buckley stated. “They’re not used to getting pushed again.”
“He’s turned the ASDC right into a power that now has a a lot larger seat on the desk once we sit all the way down to advocate for our states in entrance of the DNC,” stated Mike Schmuhl, chair of the Indiana Democratic Occasion. “That is his life’s work, and he’s been engaged on this for years.”
A few of Martin’s depth, his backers stated, comes from his personal childhood — the son of a single mother who had him at 15 years previous.
“We have been out and in of shelters. We knew what poverty felt like. We noticed what she sacrificed to verify we might have a heat dinner most nights,” Martin stated in his speech to DNC members on Saturday. “As a result of my mother gave a rattling about me and since my neighborhood gave a rattling about my household, it meant we had an opportunity.”
Nebraska Democratic Occasion Chair Jane Kleeb, one other Martin ally, stated Martin “actually needed to learn to depend on himself by means of wrestle, and I feel that that does come by means of in his character of management.”
Martin got here up in politics as a Minnesota political staffer in 1998, when professional wrestler Jesse Ventura and his Reform Occasion received the governorship and Democrats notched lower than a 3rd of the statewide vote. By the point he grew to become the chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Occasion in 2011, Democrats had solely simply began to reassert themselves electorally. However the get together itself was in shambles — and in debt. Martin plotted a 10-year rebuilding plan that put the DFL again on the middle of the Democratic ecosystem.
“He ran the DFL with an iron fist, was very spectacular,” stated a Democratic strategist, additionally granted anonymity to debate Martin candidly. “He’s like Stalin, and I say that as a praise.”
Now, Martin faces one other get together at a deficit. However some Democrats should not satisfied he’ll have the ability to pull off the identical rebrand. Of specific concern, they stated, was a pissed off donor class, lots of whom most popular Wikler.
“The delegates wished Ken, and that have to be utterly revered. It wasn’t a detailed race,” stated one Democratic donor adviser, granted anonymity to talk candidly. “Nevertheless, the donors wished Ben, and they’re going to make the delegates and the brand new chair painfully conscious of that reality over the course of the following 4 years.”
Holly Otterbein contributed to this report.
