Ken Martin, chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farm-Labor Party (DFL) and a candidate for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair, argued the party must be willing to “recenter” its agenda after it suffered a string of defeats during last month’s elections.
“For the first time in modern history, the perceptions that Americans have of the two major political parties switched. The majority of Americans now believe the Republican Party best represents the interests of the working class and the poor, and the Democratic Party is the party of the wealthy and the elites,” he outlined in a DNC framework proposal.
“It’s a damning indictment on our party brand. We must be willing to dig deep and recenter the Democratic agenda to unite families across race, age, background, and class,” he continued. “This will take a massive narrative and branding project to establish who we are in the eyes of American voters.”
Martin is among a handful of announced candidates running to be the next DNC chair. Other announced candidates include Ben Wikler, who chairs the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
Martin has helmed the Minnesota DFL since 2011 and is both a DNC vice chair and president of the Association of State Democratic Committees. He reportedly has at least 100 endorsements from DNC members so far.
In Martin’s framework, he said all 57 state and territory Democratic groups needed to be funded and that state chairs and executive directors should be full-time, paid jobs.
He argued the party needed to be involved in not only presidential races, but also critical down-ballot elections, like those for school board and mayor. Martin also urged the party to “show up in non-traditional and uncomfortable media spaces on a regular basis” in addition to creating new forums to engage with voters.
“My plan is focused on making sure we can compete in every zip code and every community—with the organizational and structural changes we need to make that happen,” Martin wrote in a post on X regarding his plan.
The DNC chair election will take place on Feb. 1, with four candidate forums scheduled before then.
