At the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting in National Harbor, Maryland, Ken Martin, longtime chair of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, secured his election as the new DNC chair. Winning 246.5 out of 448 votes, he edged out Ben Wikler of Wisconsin and former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley.
CNN has more:
“Martin, who has spent 14 years leading the Minnesota party and eight years as a DNC vice chair, emerged as an early front-runner in the race due to his long-standing ties to state party leaders, a key voting bloc. Throughout the campaign, he highlighted his track record: The Minnesota DFL hasn’t lost a single statewide race since he took over the party.”
But CNN continues:
“Outgoing chair Jaime Harrison touched on some of those tensions at the top of the elections when he condemned reports that some DNC members had been intimidated, pressured, or threatened by donors who said they would withhold funding over their votes.“In this party, there will be no tolerance for that type of behavior,” Harrison said. “We must be united because too much is at stake right now in this country.”
Not exactly a smooth transition or ringing endorsement of the process.
The hits came from all sides, particularly from the Young Democrats
“I have never attended a DNC meeting where I left and said, ‘Huh, I learned something,’” Stephanie Campanha Wheaton, one of the Young Democrats of America’s DNC members and a Martin supporter, told CNN. “You show up and you are a pawn, and you nod your head yes to everything that has already been decided upon in committees that you don’t know how people got on.”
Yikes.
The DNC faces an uphill battle, as internal discord lingers and President Trump continues to dominate the political landscape. The familiar refrain has returned: Dems in Disarray.
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