Democrats are beginning to regroup after their brutal losses in the 2024 election, and the first step on their long road forward will be electing new party leadership.
The election for the next chair of the Democratic National Committee is set for February 1.
Already a series of contenders have announced they are running to lead the Democratic party in the new age of Donald Trump.
It comes after Republicans not only won the White House including the GOP president-elect picking up the popular vote for the first time, but Republicans were able to flip the Senate and will hold a slim majority in the House come January.
Democrats will be on defense as they face a GOP trifecta with only limited options to block Republicans from enacting their agenda in the new year.
At the same time, Democrats have the momentous task of figuring out why voters across the country shifted away from the party as Trump made small gains not just in battleground states and red areas but nationwide.
They also have to determine their best messaging approach moving forward if they have any hope of recapturing a majority in Congress in the 2026 midterms.
Earlier this month, the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC) voted to recommend the rules that will guide the election process for the next DNC Chair and other officers.
Democrats have the momentous task of figuring out why voters across the country shifted away from the party
Marianne Williamson speaking to supporters in February 2024. The former Democratic presidential candidate announced her bid for DNC chair the day after Christmas
To be elected, the candidate must be receive a majority of the votes cast by the DNC members. If that does not happen on a first ballot, it will head to a second ballot and so on until the person is elected.
Here are the candidates running for DNC chair in the upcoming leadership election:
Marianne Williamson
Speaker, author and activist Marianne Williamson announced she is running to lead the Democratic party after long-shot presidential bids in 2020 and 2024.
Williamson argues politics is not about what people think but what they feel and that it does not matter how many times people are contacted if they’re not feeling it.
She believes the party has been working with an outdated ’20th century toolkit’ which cannot create a political phenomenon necessary to take on MAGA.
‘We’ve got to create a solution on the level of the problem. The greatest political car mechanic in the world is not the answer, because the problem is that we’re on the wrong road. And people can feel it,’ she wrote in a post.
She believes she is the person to lead the party forward because she has been working in personal transformation for more than 40 years and knows something about ‘changing people’s hearts and uplifting people’s spirits.’
Williamson has argued the Democratic party has strayed from its advocacy for working people, and unless they reverse that, they won’t do any better than in 2024.
She has also been critical of the Democratic party’s handling of the 2024 election because it did not hold a robust primary. She accused the party of ‘ethical corruption’ and argued it did not carry out the will of the people by backing Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris after he dropped out.
Williamson vowed her first move if elected DNC chair would be to go on a listening tour.
Martin O’Malley
Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley announced his bid for DNC chair in November and has called for Democrats to focus messaging on what people talk about at the kitchen table
Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley was the first candidate to announce his intentions to run for DNC chair last month.
The former governor has argued Democrats’ messaging always needs to go back to the ‘kitchen table’ and that the party needs to ‘return to our true selves’ to win. He’s also claimed the party is about ‘hope for tomorrow’ while Republicans are about fear.
He previously served as governor from 2007 to 2015, mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007 and most recently served as commissioner of the Social Security Administration under President Biden.
O’Malley, 61, gained national attention when he ran as a third long shot candidate against Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.
The former governor has said the party needs to learn from candidates who won in states where Harris lost at the top of the ticket.
He has the backing of prominent Democrats from his home state of Maryland including several lawmakers and signaled he’s not running to be a ‘peacetime DNC Chair.’
Ken Martin
Ken Martin is the chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party and a candidate for DNC chair. He has said Democrats have a branding and messaging problem that needs to be fixed
Ken Martin is the current chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party, a post he has held since 2011.
He announced his bid for DNC chair last month with a video in which he introduced himself as someone raised as a single mom who got involved in politics in high school and has been in the fight ever since.
Martin, 51, has argued the party needs a leader ‘who can connect with working-class voters and restore faith in the party.’
He touts turning around the Minnesota Democratic party which was in debt when he became chair. He also pointed out Democrats in his state have 22 statewide elections in a row.
Martin argued he’s ‘not a creature of DC’ but knows how the DNC works.
He has said Democratic party ideas such as increasing the minimum wage, paid family leave and abortion protections are popular but need to be reconnected to the party.
Martin has said Democrats have a branding and a messaging issue that needs to be fixed.
His campaign slogan in the race is ‘Build to win. Build to expand. Build to last.’
James Skoufis
New York State Senator James Skoufis launched a bid for DNC chair as an outsider and underdog looking to bring generational change to the party
James Skoufis is the New York state senator who represents part of the state about 50 miles north of New York City in Hudson Valley.
The little-known 37-year-old state lawmaker launched his bid late last month as an outsider and underdog representing generational change.
He has argued Democrats need to ‘show up and compete everywhere’ including in rural red areas and pointed out he has won in Trump country three times.
Skoufis has also called for his party to recommit to a populous message and move away from ‘hair on fire texts and emails.’
He has pushed to move the party funds away from consultants and expensive TV ads and dedicate resources to sate and local parties where people can do the work in communities face-to-face.
Ben Wikler
Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler at a campaign event November 1
Ben Wikler is the chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party where he is credited with a series of Democrats winning in the state even as Trump won the top of the ticket.
The party in his state has been focused on a year-round effort to help Democrats across Wisconsin.
Wikler has served as Wisconsin Democratic party chair since 2019.
While he has been at the helm, Democrats flipped the state Supreme Court, helped reelect Governor Tony Evers, and he believes the state is on track for Democrats to recapture a majority in the state legislature in 2026.
He also previously served as Washington, DC director of the progressive policy advocacy group MoveOn.
Wikler has argued of all the swing states that went to Trump in 2024, Wisconsin has the smallest shift toward the Republican president-elect.
He has called for Democrats to have a ‘nationwide permanent campaign’ and has focused his messaging on working people.
Wikler launched his DNC chair bid in December 1 arguing what Democrats have done in his state can be done nationwide and needs to demonstrate to people that the party is on their side.
His slogan in the DNC chair race is ‘Unite. Fight. Win.’
