UPDATE LINKS AS OF 1/28: DNC Chair vote is in 3 days! Who do we want as DNC Chair on February 1?? And why?

[ancianita]

Last edited Wed Jan 29, 2025, 12:31 PM - Edit history (8)

Is seniority and succession the priority, or what.

Which of these candidates have access to actual voter intelligence that tells them where the party should go, and how to better GOTV?

We can swap choices and opinions.
I've never participated in a DNC election, but going forward I think we should weigh in with our leadership, so admittedly I'm not sure who votes for these candidates.
If the voters on Feb 1 are our congressional caucus, then it seems that we should be calling them and giving the best reasons listed here to sway their vote toward the candidate who trends here to be the best going forward to the midterms and 2028.

Once we swap opinions, we should call our rep and senator and tell them who and why (hope these are up-to-date).

https://clerk.house.gov/member_info/TTD-119.pdf

https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm



February 1, 2025 – Election to be held by party voting members at the DNC's Winter Meeting.[3]
Candidates

In order to qualify as a candidate for chair, one must submit a nominating statement signed by 40 DNC members by January 25, 2025.[6]

Declared
-- Quintessa Hathaway, educator and nominee for Arkansas's 2nd congressional district in 2022[7]
-- Robert Houton, nonprofit executive and candidate in the 2024 United States Senate election in Maryland[8]
-- Ken Martin, vice chair of the Democratic National Committee (2017–present) and chair of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (2011–present)[9]

-- Martin O'Malley, commissioner of the Social Security Administration (2023–2024), former governor of Maryland (2007–2015), and candidate for president in 2016[10]
-- Jason Paul, executive member of the Newton, Massachusetts Democratic City Committee (2016–present)[11]
-- Faiz Shakir, campaign manager for Bernie Sanders's 2020 presidential campaign[12]

-- Nate Snyder, former United States Department of Homeland Security official[13]
-- Ben Wikler, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party (2019–present)[14]
-- Marianne Williamson, author and candidate for president in 2020 and 2024[15]

More on how this goes...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Democratic_National_Committee_chairmanship_election

1/28 UPDATE: MARC ELIAS INTERVIEWS KEN MARTIN, MARTIN O'MALLEY AND BEN WIKLER ON
"What They’d Do Differently Moving Forward"
https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/dnc-chair-candidates-on-2024-election-what-theyd-do-differently-moving-forward/

[FSogol]

1. Martin O'Malley, smart , pragmatic, and not afraid to

try new methods.

[Yoyoyo77]

2. I'm all in for Wikler!!!

[ancianita]

3. Reasons?

[electric_blue68]

35. He had an interview w Brian Cohen Taylor. Wanted to reach out the voters in some different ways. Get voters more involve

with advancing issues so they didn't feel like they were just ATM machines always being asked for money.
Yeah, that was addressed.

[jxla]

19. O'Malley Platform & 100 Day Plan

https://www.martinomalleydnc.com/platform/

https://www.martinomalleydnc.com/100-day-plan/

[Nanjeanne]

22. I like the thoughtfulness of the 100 day plan. He is at least coming up with ideas that could be

implemented. I wish Ds in Congress spent the months before the inauguration coming up with a 100 day plan to fight Trump since they knew what he would be doing. Or at least a unified document about what is going to happen to people based on these immediate rescinding of policies etc.

I still believe Shakir would be more bold and better able to present a different face for the DNC which I think is needed — but we are fortunate to have good people vying for this role. My fear is that whoever is chosen will not dare to remake the DNC so voters can feel a new direction and focus is happening.

[FSogol]

4. Marianne Williamson should get zero votes.n/t

[ancianita]

6. Doesn't look as if she has any endorsements... here's a closer look, along with her political positions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marianne_Williamson

[jxla]

31. I got curious - Marianne's Plan for the DNC

https://marianne4dnc.com/plan/

[ancianita]

33. She seems clear on the "consultants" of the party, but "that will change" ... I don't know. What do you think?

I can't tell her priorities is why I ask. Funders want to win, and she says she does, but I'm not sure she's got national organization experience beyond being a presidential candidate, to GOTV of youth; also I'm not sure her leadership would get the backing of major billionaire funders. Just my opinion.

[msfiddlestix]

43. agree

[Bleacher Creature]

5. Wikler. Absolutely no question about it.

[ancianita]

7. Reasons?

[Bleacher Creature]

12. His track record in Wisconsin speaks for itself.

That state party is as vibrant as any in the country and even in 2024 was the best performing swing state for Harris. I also like his focus on the need to do a better job driving the narrative and his emphasis on using non-traditional media.

[imaginary girl]

34. Agree he'd be a good choice

Loved the Princess Bride fundraiser he organized during Covid! I’m not even from Wisconsin and I thought he did a great job for his state’s candidates!

[Renew Deal]

8. I heard Martin on POD save America and he was saying the right things.

I think he could be good.

[iemanja]

37. Martin's strength is fundraising

I don't think he would be helpful in influencing the kind of change we need in the party.

[Scrivener7]

9. Pete Buttigieg. Because he can do anything. But he's not in the running.

[DFW]

16. Second that! n/t

[Think. Again.]

10. I'm hoping for someone who isn't deeply entrenched...

...in the Democratic Party status quo.

And for Vice Chair, I'm hoping for David Hogg, because attracting the youth vote is imperative (it is their future after all).

[osteopath6]

15. AOC

She's invigorated, and really delivers on messaging. Not with keywords or focus groups, but by being real with people. I appreciate that about her.

I love her ideas. Don't agree with all of them, but she's sharp and new ideas are how boundaries get pushed.

There is no wrong answer here, as long as we get people who will fight for the truth and stand up to illegal actions by the new admin.

My apologies! I hit reply to you instead of the thread. Whoops!

[FSogol]

25. She has a full time job already. n/t

[FSogol]

20. Are vice chairs appointed or voted on? Im assuming

there is more than 1 vice chair. I'm sure Hogg will get a seat.

[jxla]

21. Vice Chairs Candidates

https://www.demlist.com/demdaily-dnc-leadership-race-the-contenders/

Vice Chair for Civic Engagement and Voter Participation
Joyce Beatty: Six-term Congresswoman representing Ohio’s Third Congressional District

Michael Blake: Former New York Assemblyman and previous DNC Vice Chair

Reyna Walters-Morgan: Former DNC Director of Civic Engagement and Voter Protection; former Biden-Harris Administration at DOJ; founder, Walters-Morgan Law

Nikema Williams: Two-term Congresswoman representing Georgia's 5th Congressional District; Chair, Democratic Party of Georgia

Vice Chair: Three of the following candidates will be chosen as a Vice Chair: Joe Barbuto, Artie Blanco, Waikinya Clanton, Shasti Conrad, Michelle Deatrick, Aisha Dew, Kalyn Free, Adam Frisch, David Hogg, Chris Jones, Malcolm Kenyatta, Joe Paolino, Jeanna Repass and James Zogby

[Donkees]

11. Faiz Shakir:

I offer my candidacy at this late moment only because I have concrete ideas and the necessary experience of how to use an organization with tens of millions of dollars in resources and nationwide staff to attract working class support. I have consistently built strong and effective teams. I proudly led Bernie’s 2020 campaign, founded the nation’s leading working class media outlet More Perfect Union, built People Power organizing at the ACLU during the first Trump term, landed my first political job in the DNC HQ (on the Research team), and have learned a great deal about leadership from being on the staffs of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

I’m looking forward to sharing with you my desires to reimagine what the DNC does. I envision:

– a DNC that is an organizing army which lends support to striking and organizing union and non-union workers (like those recently at Amazon, Boeing or among manufacturing workers and nurses), and joins with tenant unions and community organizations fighting economic exploitation and price gouging on the ground (ie, those who are organizing against unaffordable rent increases, unreasonable utility rate hikes, hospital closures, the undermining of public schools through school vouchers, stopping privatization of reliable government services like the post office or the VA);

– a DNC that becomes its own powerful media outlet, doing compelling original content in different video, text and graphic formats guided by a mission of featuring working class heroes taking on corporate greed, educational pieces about the aims and ambitions of the Silicon swamp surrounding Trump, and using our historical archives to showcase the proud legacy of Democratic fights for the common man;

– a DNC that seeks out and hosts convenings with Trump voters who previously voted Democrat and voters who sat out the last presidential election in order to challenge our assumptions of how to improve the brand;

– a DNC that identifies areas where Democrats have consistently failed to field candidates in general elections and recruit and resource working class candidates to run for those seats;

– and a DNC where membership is much more than merely making a passive contribution but also actively involves the grassroots in surfacing interesting policy ideas and building civic organization around community service, faith, sports, culture and entertainment.

Most importantly, we have to strategically pick big fights with the elite and selfish oligarchs now entering government “service” not just to decry their looting but to paint the picture of how we would wield power in a very different way.

If we are clear-eyed, competent, and action-oriented, our fellow Americans will respond positively in the next few years to a Democratic Party that honestly realigns itself with its roots in the working class. Building power for working people — that’s my personal mission and purpose, and I want to bring that to the DNC.

[Nanjeanne]

13. Fair Shakir is who I want. The reasons are in Donkees post. As well as his interview

In your statement announcing your plan to run for chair of the DNC, you said that you believe the central job of the chair is to change how Democrats are perceived by voters. How are Democrats perceived by voters right now?

I believe a lot of working-class people out there hold the Democratic Party to a different standard than the Republican Party, and quite frankly, it’s a higher standard. That means they feel like when there’s great wealth and income inequality in society, when billionaires are ruling, when there are major fights depriving them of economic freedom in all different kinds of places—whether it’s in the workplace, or as a consumer, or small businesses getting crunched by monopolists—when you have that going on in society, they’re expecting and wanting a fighter who sticks their neck out with us and for us.

I draw the metaphor to unions. When you get out there and you talk to some workers who are on a strike and they’re upset about contract negotiations, sometimes they’ll be angrier at their union head than they will be at the company. “The head of the company only cares about their bottom line. That’s the way they operate,” a worker might say. “My union head is supposed to stick up for me. That’s their job.” And in that way, they get angry. That’s what I sense is going on with a lot of working class people here as we’ve become a party spending less time prioritizing [the] economic justice message that is the historical lineage of our party, it has caused people to check out and stay at home. As a result, I think we have a very weak and struggling Democratic brand.

And

But Sherrod Brown and Jon Tester did that in 2024 and still lost. Brown’s loss especially stands out; his opponent was a luxury car salesman who was sued by a bunch of his workers over allegations of discrimination and wage theft.

You’re absolutely right. My analysis of that election cycle is they over-performed over the Democratic brand. What hurt them? The Democratic brand. At some point, you’re trying to swim above water aggressively as much as you can, until that anchor is just pulling you down underneath.

Tester and Brown are the best examples of that in the last election cycle. Even look at Dan Osborne [an independent Senate candidate running in Nebraska with quiet support from Democrats], who lost his race. He didn’t run under the Democratic banner, but you can look at his over-performance. Don’t just look at the W’s and L’s. The major takeaway was that these guys were way over-performing [the national Democratic ticket].

Whole in Mother Jones https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/01/faiz-shakir-dnc-chair-bernie-sanders/]

What we will get? Probably Ken Martin. I just hope whoever it is has courage and vision to build an exciting party with rural and urban reach and deep local talent.

[milestogo]

14. Ben Wikler

He was born for this.

[pinkstarburst]

17. I like Wikler as well.

I've listened to him talk and he has some really good ideas that I think would resonate with many corners of the party.

[kansasobama]

18. Obsession with Midwest is ridiculous

Sudden enlightenment among Dems that it has to be a mid Westerner does not serve a purpose. Do not expect the MAGAS in midWest and in PA to return to Dems. I listened to Wikler and he tried to say a long sentence that says Dems include this group and that group and what not. Did not look like something a normal person would say. He is good but to think a Midwesterner is the answer is simplifying a complex issue.

The only thing that will teach a lesson is a hard ball tactic from Western States. As far as this is concerned, our country has been very unlucky. California fires have upended that probability. Despite all this, California will dictate where the country will go. There are so many deadbeat red states that depend on California, it is criminal.

Neither Michigan governor or Pennsylvania governor are capable of standing up to MAGAS in their states.

[Fix The Stupid]

23. Ok..as a Canadian, I am throwing this name out there...

Ritchie Torres (d) NY

Now, tell me why this would be bad...

Just saw an interview with this guy and I like him.

[ancianita]

24. Well, since you asked...

Last edited Thu Jan 23, 2025, 06:24 PM - Edit history (1)

He's not thrown his hat in the ring as a "DECLARED" candidate. So you can say "I like him" but still, how does one interview qualify him to lead the national party?

And how can his election experience in the South Bronx -- one of the smallest districts by area in the country, covering only a few square miles -- scale out to be a model throughout much larger Democratic districts in the other 49 states?

Don't you think he should at least have national electoral experience first?

[BOSSHOG]

26. Attila the Hun

[ancianita]

30. lol cynical joke aside...

thanks for the kick.

[FarPoint]

27. David Hogg

Vice Chairman

[Aviation Pro]

28. A brawler

Someone willing to fuck up Motherfucker’s shit on a daily basis and wise enough to throw away the old playbook.

[Oneear]

29. Who will Stand up for Clean Water to Drink?

In America, Check the Type of Water Pipe Flowing into your Community. In Cape Girardeau, Missouri, 95% of the water pipes are made of galvanized pipe dipped in zinc EPA.org lead. The EPA has sent Grant Money to States for your Community. We Need to Remove Lead Pipes Nationwide.

[ancianita]

32. Maybe the former governor candidate? Governors tend to know how infrastructure repair in their states are handled.

[Wild blueberry]

36. Ben Wikler

He has done a great job in Wisconsin, revitalizing our WisDems and getting out to every county to fight.
Recommending him because I know what he's done in Wisconsin, especially after the trauma of Scott Walker and Maga dominance of state legislature. He is courageous and works all out, along with his staff.

Probably some of the others are good, too. We need a fighter in all fifty states, every county, every fight.
(Do not need a corporate lickspittle.)

[msfiddlestix]

38. I don't see David Hogg's name on this list. Maybe it's my vision impairment?

[ancianita]

40. Glad you ask! David Hogg is running for Vice Chair. Emphasis here has been on the DNC Chair.

[msfiddlestix]

42. Oh right, thanks for the fact check!

[ancianita]

39. UPDATE: Anand Giridharadas' Interview with Faiz Shakir

Excerpts... to read the full interview, use this link.
https://the.ink/p/hard-truths-interview-faiz-shakir-democratic-national-committee-chair

Among the newer contenders is Faiz Shakir — former political director of the ACLU, the head of Bernie Sanders’ 2020 campaign, and current executive director of the media organization More Perfect Union.
Shakir offers a very different vision, of a DNC chair who can refocus the position and the party, with a commitment to rebuilding the Democrats’ traditional working-class base, putting the donor class in its place, and educating its elected members about how to negotiate the media landscape to speak honestly to voters about their needs and dreams...

Giridharadas: ...I feel like the space that has been opened up in the wake of this Trump victory is actually a really big, broad space. So I want to invite you now to fill that space with some of your hardest truths. What are the things that you want to tell people are true now, hard truths about how the Democratic Party has shown up? What are the reasons it shows up that way? And how is it going to have to change?

Shakir: ...My first reaction was, whoa, what the heck are these caucuses? Like, we’ve got to change this structure because very little purpose and meaning is going into this. We are telling people when they join the Democratic Party, “You worked hard, maybe you ran for something, you want it, and now you're a member of the DNC. Great. When you come to our winter meeting, summer meeting, whatever it might be, what do you do there?”

Nothing.

You actually go and join in a little group and you sit over there and you separate yourself out by skin color, or race, or identity, whatever it might be. And then you sit there and there's no mission or purpose.

I'm like, whoa, let's break this. How about mission and purpose? What are some? Well, obviously, you know, we're lacking for ambition there. So I'm going to offer a few...

...working-class people hold us in higher regard. They have a higher bar for us than they do for Republicans. They think of our historical lineage: You fight for the common person. That is what you are.

So I will penalize you greater if I don't feel like you are going to stick your necks out for me in a rigged economy in which I think I'm getting screwed over. And you’re the people who fought for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, I'm expecting you to bring it right now because we're swimming in a sea of selfishness and greed here. So you bring me your passion because I need you now. And when we don't meet it, they penalize us greater. They stay home. They say, hey, I'm out....

OK, this institution, call it the Democratic National Committee, whatever you want to say, labor union. When you have the devolution of power and it goes away from that to super PAC, ... OK, what happens?...

We have to have a conviction-oriented conversation.
So our brand is lacking it right now. It is a sense that the Democratic Party, very polite, very nice, but, you know, very slow, very lethargic, doesn't want to have honest conversations around the things that they truly believe.
So I'm not sure what you truly believe, when I see you agree on the Green New Deal here, now you're not, or you're interested in trans issues at this point, now you're seemingly not as interested.

In my mind, these are all easy to deal with if you have conviction and talk about it.
But when they see you not talking about them, you're going to get penalized.

So my view is that the things you're talking about — of not winning online with some of these forums — is downstream of the fact that upstream, decisions were made that we can not talk about these five things right now. Can we not discuss the challenge of immigration, the border crossings, and what they're doing in Chicago, and how they're hurting the social safety net there in schools and healthcare systems? So it's dicey. It's very difficult. I don't know what you'd have to say. Why don't we not say anything?

Well, people aren't dumb. They're watching. They're seeing that. And my view is that we can solve the downstream things of you being interesting online. But you're going to go on Joe Rogan (or Anand’s show), right? And you're going to get asked, “Hey, so a lot of people are interested in what's your view on border crossings? Has your view changed on that? It seems like back in the day you thought this thing, and now, maybe, do you still think that?”

You gotta answer that one. In my view — this is where I might feel differently than a lot of Democratic operatives — I'm like, I think people out there in the world have different ideologies and they're all over the map. What they're hunting for is, do you know where you stand with any degree of conviction and can you tell me that you believe that?

Like if Donald Trump was reading a poll, he's not gonna keep saying the election is rigged. Like Mr. President, that's a 30 percent issue. Why are you going out with that? He's like, sorry, I believe it. I'm gonna keep saying it. And then he gets rewarded by people who say, well, I don't agree with him, but he believes what he's saying. So he thinks the election was rigged, but I'm going to look past that and I'm going to look at some other things.

This is why I think a lot of people get too scared of talking, but just give me your orientation. Wherever.
On Gaza, Gaza is a great example. Just give me your orientation. You can be John Fetterman, you can be AOC, you can be Bernie Sanders.

Just tell me what you believe and say it.

[CTyankee]

41. Where are our women leaders? I don't see many on this list...

[ancianita]

44. I hear you. Let's ask all 28 of them.

https://democraticwomenscaucus.house.gov/members


https://clerk.house.gov/member_info/TTD-119.pdf


https://www.senate.gov/general/resources/pdf/senators_phone_list.pdf

[ancianita]

45. MARC ELIAS INTERVIEWS KEN MARTIN, MARTIN O'MALLEY AND BEN WIKLER ON "What They'd Do Differently Moving Forward"

https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/dnc-chair-candidates-on-2024-election-what-theyd-do-differently-moving-forward/