the Democratic National Committee will begin a multi-round election to choose its new chair. Former President Joe Biden’s appointee, Jamie Harrison, is on his way out, and an array of party insiders and outsiders are competing to replace him.
The DNC’s 448 voting members include hundreds of Democrats elected and selected through state parties, along with smaller numbers of appointees, elected officials, and representatives from party groups like the Young Democrats of America. They will cast ballots for a new chair at a time when the Democratic Party itself is adrift, with no clear leader and no strategy for fighting the Trump agenda or regaining power. As one DNC member told me, “The DNC is not really talking about what went wrong and what we did wrong.”
In writing this piece, I reached out to 427 of the DNC’s 448 voting members and interviewed 19 of them. Those who spoke with me came from ideologically, geographically, and racially diverse backgrounds. They included Democrats from rural and urban communities, grassroots party members, elected officials, and party insiders and critics alike. Most agreed to speak on the condition their names wouldn’t be used.
What emerged from these conversations is a picture of a DNC that is built to be an undemocratic, top-down institution, unable to truly leverage the wisdom and guidance of the DNC members who hail from local and state networks across the country. This is especially true when those local and state members disagree with the DNC’s posture or strategic choices
Members said their meetings don’t feel like a place for participation or governance. They described these gatherings as a combination of party presentations and social time, as opposed to real debates or discussions. During Covid, for instance, one member said that meetings were held via web conference, with the chat function turned off. And while the potential for real decision-making can occur at the DNC committee level, “committees are completely rigged, with the chair appointing whoever they want,” one DNC member told me.
In some ways, the race for DNC chair has itself become a microcosm of this tension between money, transparency, and winning elections. Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party Chair Ken Martin and Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler are considered the front-runners based on their declared, though likely inflated, DNC vote counts. But neither has disclosed how much money they have raised for their campaigns, who their donors are, or how much they have spent.
The DNC is the second half of the one party state
One class, two parties
The Duopoly has been playing good cops bad cop with the American people for 30 years now on behalf of their owners.
They’re both cops who work for the same masters, they are on the same team.
God please let this be the 4 year cycle we kill the Duopoly.
Wikler drew the public backing of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other big names like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
To me that’s concerning, because everything that has happened the last 20 years to empower the GOP had come at l on the watch of those two.
And I’m not sure either is willing to shake things up enough to truly bring about change.
I’d be interested to hear AOC’s thoughts.
Good old stock trading Nancy and “we’ll get 2 republican votes for every base voter we lose” Schumer.
if I am correct in the snippets I’ve read the new guy is good on civil rights issues. that won’t completely turn off the black women. and black women staying engaged is paramount.
I didn’t know too much about who endorsed wikler but seeing who endorsed him makes me feel better that he didn’t win. no offense to the guy but I feel very comfortable knowing that the key people who engineered biden’s ouster, and are perfectly okay with blocking legislation to prevent congressional insider trading, and have essentially done nothing to put brakes on citizens united (in fact I think they are embracing it which should be extremely disturbing. especially since they suck at using it) didn’t get their guy.
Ken Martin won: https://www.axios.com/2025/02/01/ken-martin-dnc-chair-2024
Is this bad?
I’m 90% sure he was the one who ruined Congressman Dean Phillips’ (D-MN) career. If you don’t know, Phillips was the one guy who (correctly) thought Biden was in serious jeopardy of losing and tried to get the party to hold a real primary. He ran against Biden and begged other Democrats to join him. Not only did no one help him primary Biden, but two Democrats decided to primary him instead. He decided not to run for reelection, since it was pretty clear his own party was running him out of politics.
Ken Martin was the head of the MN Democrats at the time, so it’s hard to believe any Democrats would primary Phillips without at least consulting him. He was also very critical of Phillips for running and made this incredibly passive-aggressive statement when he decided not to seek reelection:
We appreciate Dean’s service and his 100% voting record supporting President Biden’s historic record of accomplishments. There are a number of talented DFLers who would be great representatives for Minnesota’s third district and who understand the importance of reelecting President Biden and keeping this seat in DFL hands. I’m confident we will have a strong and loyal nominee for the DFL Party at the conclusion of the process.
Not if you’re one of the “good billionaires” he thinks exist.
Remember the DNC didn’t start as the left wing party. They were the pro business kkk party back in the 30s and 40s. The civil rights movement and the GOP ‘Southern Strategy’ that flipped the politics of the parties didn’t fundamenly change the structure that much.
And they bitterly regret that decision, evidently.
What_Year_Is_It?.jpg
This is the only time I’ve agreed with a “by design” assertion
How reliable is The Intercept? That’s a general question.
The Intercept has a left-wing bias but it is quite credible and reliable. You can read more about it on the credible sources discussion https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Perennial_sources
They were the organ for Glenn Greenwald, they were founded on the back of the Snowden revelations. He (Greenwald) “somehow” drifted into MAGAland and they booted him out in 2020.
In February 2024, The Intercept laid off 16 staff members, one-third of its newsroom. In April 2024, the outlet fired William Arkin and Ken Klippenstein resigned in protest.
. . . At launch, Omidyar pledged $250 million in funding. The non-profit arm of First Look Media budgeted $26 million in both 2017 and 2018, according to public filings, much allocated to The Intercept. Top journalists received top dollar, with Greenwald being paid $500,000 in 2015.
The Intercept was awarded a grant of $3.25 million from Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX. It had only received $500,000 when Bankman-Fried went bankrupt and the shortfall in funding “will leave The Interceptwith a significant hole in its budget” according to its editor-in-chief.
Omidyar ceased financial support in 2022. First Look Media offered a $14 million grant when The Intercept spun off. In 2023, the CEO discussed a financial pivot to small donors and major gifts. Donations doubled from $488,000 to $876,000 from 2022 to 2023, but failed to meet expenses. As of April 2024, The Intercept was burning around $300,000 a month.
I think of them as the leftist Vice to Jacobin’s Mother Jones.
TL;DR: The Democratic Party is extremely democratic. The article says so in the first five paragraphs.
The clickbait headline and firebomb premise is based on the 19 interviewees of the 500 people who make up the party saying, in part, that they feel like they’re not listened to enough.
Well no fucking shit, have you ever worked in an organization of more than 500 people? Did you feel “listened to”? No. No you didn’t. Because large organizations follow the same rules of communication they always have.
It’s not “undemocratic” you fucking pricks, it’s the nature of large organizations. Bland, inoffensive ideas are more likely to be adopted. If you want “to be heard” you’ve got to be an extrovert. You’ve got to like talking to people. You’ve got to be both LOUD and consistent.
It’s not fucking rocket surgery, and it’s NOT anti-Democratic. You know how easy it is to get someone in a medium sized business to say they don’t feel listened to?
This article isn’t bad, but the premise and the headline are complete bullshit.
The Democratic Party is extremely democratic.
They lost my vote this election because they skipped their primary. It’s not democratic to skip an election. That’s the death of democracy.
