Democrats consider party chair change after Donald Trump election

The Democratic Party faces existential questions after Donald Trump’s resounding victory. One of the first: Who will lead it?

Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison is not expected to seek a second term, opening a job that must be filled by March 1, according to the party’s bylaws. Who takes the position will speak volumes about how the party wants to present itself going forward and what issues members believe hampered Democrats against Trump in 2024.

The incoming chair will also oversee the party’s 2028 nominating process, a complex and contentious exercise that will make that person central to the next presidential election. Harrison was derided for having backed President Joe Biden even as many Democratic voters questioned whether the president should run again. He was accused after Biden’s disastrous debate performance of pushing for a virtual roll call before Biden chose to withdraw.

The early debate over Harrison’s replacement appears to be set on a clear dividing line: Do Democrats need an operative with clear skills and experience in reshaping the party’s infrastructure? Or does the party need a communicator who can respond to everything the Trump administration plans to do and can sell Democratic ideas to a public that rejected them at the ballot box?

“They have to find someone from outside Washington who understands politics at the grassroots level,” said Howard Dean, a former chair who took the position after George W. Bush won a second term as president. Dean said he has received calls from members urging him to run, but he has no plans to do so. “The DNC is often a creature of Washington, which is a major problem. … You have to have a DNC that is big enough to include the whole country.”

Top Democrats are scheduled to meet privately in Scottsdale, Arizona, in mid-December. Already, there is speculation among attendees that serious candidates would attend the meeting or at least be announced by then.

In the wake of Tuesday’s thrashing, there is a sense, at least among some of the DNC’s rank-and-file, that the committee’s 440-plus voting members may be more likely to embrace an outsider with strong ties to the party’s formal establishment. Some also would want the new chair to fill a full-time role, which would present challenges to a current officeholder.

“As the party looks to the future, we must be positioned for the important work of unifying and strengthening Democrats at all levels, and holding Trump’s Republican Party accountable for the harms it will inflict on the American people,” said Rosemary Boeglin, a spokesperson for the committee. “In the coming weeks, we will lay out a process for electing a new Chair to guide us on that path forward.”

The more high-profile leaders on the minds of multiple top Democrats include Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, former Georgia lawmaker Stacey Abrams, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg; and Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor and current commissioner of the Social Security Administration.

The lower-profile route features state party chairs Ken Martin, chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and a vice chair of the national party; Ben Wikler, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin; and Michael Blake, a former vice chair of the party.

Many committee members believe this is not a time for the party to focus on one specific skill set in a chair at the expense of others. Instead, this group argues, you need someone with a broad range of skills.

“It needs to be someone who can raise money. It needs to be someone who is a good communicator. And it needs to be someone who can look towards modernization,” said Maria Cardona, a longtime Democratic operative and DNC member who is against the chair being a current elected official.

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Republished with permission of the Associated Press.