A.G. Gancarski
The recently re-elected chair of the Florida Democrats’ pick for national chair prevailed in an election Saturday that was over on the first ballot.
Ken Martin, the chair of the Minnesota Democrats, won by a big margin by invoking the memory of progressive darling Paul Wellstone, whose life inspired many on the left before its untimely, tragic end.
Martin got 246 votes, and the candidate endorsed by Nikki Fried and others, including State Senator Shevrin Jones, Judy Mount, Pamela Castellana, Alan Clendenin, Ric Gable, and Lydia Hudson, will take helm of a national organization that is locked out of control in Washington and firmly in insurgent mode.
Despite the dire circumstances left by exited Chair Jaime Harrison, Florida Democrats herald Martin’s win as a new beginning.
“As Chair of the Association of State Democratic Chairs, Ken has spent years traveling the country to support state parties while leading in his own state of Minnesota. As the longest serving Chair of the Minnesota Democratic Party, he has devoted his time to turning the party around into a model for the nation, built a winning coalition and won every statewide election,” Fried said.
“Ken is a visionary leader for Democrats in red, blue and purple states. He understands what it takes to win again and has always shown up for Florida — I’m proud to call him my friend, and excited to work with him as our chair,” she added.
Ben Wikler finished second with 134 votes, and he carried impressive endorsements all his own from Florida, including Vice Chair Daniel Henry and 2022 LG nominee Karla Hernàndez-Mats. He was also financially backed by George Soros, it was revealed before the vote.
Sean Shaw, a former state Senator who narrowly lost the 2018 Attorney General race, backed Martin O’Malley, who got just 44 votes. He was the only Floridian to break from the top two.
The delegation is more united behind Parkland survivor David Hogg for Vice Chair, meanwhile. That result has yet to be announced.
One comment
Ron Ogden
February 1, 2025 at 2:49 pm
Why can Democrats ever learn? Now they are elevating another out-to-lunch midwestern lefty in the mold of Hubert Humphrey and Eugene McCarthy, and not too dissimilar to McGovern and LaFollette (Wellstone already mentioned). Who am I forgetting? OMG, Walter Mondale! (All of whom white males, incidentally.) It’s just the same old thing. Democrats cannot continue giving us leaders who focus on the travails of ten-year-olds who got left off the football team and so have decided they want to be girls. You have to gain a clear grasp of reality. That Fried, who presided over the greatest collapse of a state party in history, endorsed this fellow ought to be fair warning enough, but those in that party who are just so damn sure they are more right and more moral and the product of a better science than their neighbors are never going to understand, and this election is evidence that they do not.