The Democratic National Committee (DNC) will hold four candidate forums this month to replace outgoing Chairman Jamie Harrison.
Eight candidates are running to take the DNC helm, with Minnesota state party chairman Ken Martin and Wisconsin state party chairman Ben Wikler emerging as the frontrunners.
Other candidates include former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, New York State Senator James Skoufis, former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, former Homeland Security official Nate Snyder, and attorney Jason Paul. , former Congressional candidate and entrepreneur Quintessa Hathaway is running for office.
Whoever wins the role on February 1 will become the new leader of a party desperate for a reset after November's disastrous election.
Here are five things to note ahead of the DNC's first forum.
How do the candidates differ in their vision for the Democratic Party?
While many of the candidates running for the DNC are largely ideologically aligned, Williamson has garnered a reputation as a more outspoken progressive. But some common themes have emerged among candidates about how they approach the job.
Wikler and Martin, for example, emphasize a greater focus on party infrastructure. They also said the party should compete at every level of the vote.
However, some fault lines have emerged, particularly regarding his relationship with party advisers and his personal record.
Mr. Skoufis and Mr. Williamson, in particular, have been unabashed in criticizing the role of party advisers within the DNC.
“The way we rebuild is by first writing off 43 of the 50 states every four years and getting away from consultants telling us where not to come,” Skoufis said at a candidate forum hosted by the DNC Labor Council. mentioned in. “We have to show up everywhere again.”
At the same forum, Mr Williamson said that while “very little money” went to state parties, “virtually all the money was kept in the consultancy industry”.
How will the candidates respond to President Trump?
Another important question is how likely the candidates are to support President-elect Trump, especially given that many voters in battleground states such as Arizona, Nevada, and Wisconsin are splitting their votes between Trump and Democratic Senate candidates. I wonder if it will be against.
“We have to make people understand who we are, what our party is, who we're fighting for and why we're fighting. That means if we continue to resist Trump… If we're just focused on what we're doing, it means we're not going to make people understand who we are and why they should support us,” Martin told The Hill in an interview last year. spoke.
O'Malley suggested at a DNC Labor Council forum that the party needs to better connect with how President Trump's actions affect ordinary people.
“We want to create a digital communications center of excellence that speaks to the economic concerns of our hardest working people every day,” he said. “Every time Donald Trump does something that undermines the economic security of the American people, we must immediately connect it with the communications necessary to win hearts and minds.”
Will there be fireworks?
So far, the election for DNC chairman has been largely peaceful. Still, some members have begun to make some attacks against others, including during Labor Council forums.
“If you want someone to tout that we lost the state by the slimmest of margins, I’m not your guy,” Skoufis said at the forum, apparently referring to Wikler. . “What I care about is winning, not losing by a small margin.”
One thing to watch out for is whether candidates will make their campaigns more personal or avoid trying to destabilize elections.
Does anyone emerge as a clear front-runner?
So far, Martin and Wickler appear to be the two leading candidates in the race for Democratic National Committee chairman. Martin's team has said it has the support of more than 100 DNC committee members, and the Minnesota Democratic Party has announced support from a handful of state delegations in recent days, including Tennessee and Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, Wikler has received endorsements from several prominent groups and Democrats, particularly Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).
O'Malley's teamtold the New York TimesMr. Skoufis told the Times he had the support of more than 60 members.
Among the big Democratic lawmakers who have not yet considered the opinion are President Biden, Vice President Harris, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Representatives Nancy Pelosi of California and James Cliver. (South Carolina).
Will Williamson draw the headlines?
Williamson, a two-time presidential candidate, is in the high-stakes race to replace Harrison, but remains known in party politics as an outspoken progressive who positions himself as an outsider within the party. It is existence.
“Democrats need to step down from their elite heights and actually talk to the American people,” she says.He told the New York Times when announcing his candidacy..
She has also criticized the DNC itself, alleging that it “rigged” the primary system when it changed the order of voting states early in the presidential primary.
She faces a steep hill, but her provocative statements could draw headlines after the forum.
