Democrats in Disarray: More candidates jump into wide-open race for DNC chair

The field of contenders bidding to steer the Democratic National Committee in the wake of the party's very disappointing results in last month's elections keeps growing.

Three more candidates over the weekend announced their intentions to run in a wide-open DNC chair race that appears to have a frontrunner.

Ben Wikler, who's chaired the state Democratic Party in battleground Wisconsin for five years, launched his campaign Sunday in a video.

"Today, the country we love needs the Democratic Party to be stronger. To unite. To fight. And to win," Wikler emphasized.

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Also Sunday, former Senate candidate from Maryland Robert Houton announced his bid, saying in a letter to DNC members that he aimed to "lead and grow our Democratic party to champion electoral and transformative, legacy victories in 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, and beyond."

A day earlier, New York state Sen. James Skoufis took to social media to announce his long-shot, outsider bid for DNC chair, in the race to succeed Jaime Harrison, who is not seeking a second four-year term early next year in the wake of major setbacks for the Democrats up and down the 2024 ballot.

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"Voters have spoken, and we need to listen, not lecture. We need to be strong fighters again," he said. "I may be an outsider, but I know how to win."

And Skoufis vowed to "throw out the DNC's stale, Beltway-centered playbook so that we rebuild, stop ceding ground to Republicans and start winning again – everywhere."

Martin O'Malley, the former two-term Maryland governor and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate who served as commissioner of the Social Security Administration the past year, and Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair Ken Martin, a DNC vice chair who also leads the association of state Democratic Party chairs, jumped into the race last week.

"When I took over @MinnesotaDFL, we were in debt and disarray. But we brought people together, built a winning coalition, and delivered results. I’m ready to get to work to rebuild our party," Martin said in a social media post announcing his run.

In an accompanying video, Martin emphasized, "If you're looking for a creature of D.C., that's not me. But I do know how the DNC works and how it isn't working."

O'Malley, in launching his bid, highlighted that "we must connect our Party with the most important place in America – the kitchen table of every family’s home. Jobs, Opportunity, and Economic Security for all. Getting things done. Hope. A 50 state strategy. Now."

The field of five DNC chair candidates is expected to grow, as the Democrats try to rebound after losing the White House and Senate in the 2024 elections and failing to recapture the House of Representatives.

As Fox News and other news organizations reported last month, Rahm Emanuel, the ambassador to Japan, has been quietly reaching out to DNC committee members as he contemplates a bid. Emanuel is a former two-term Chicago mayor who earlier served as White House chief of staff in President Obama's administration and as a member of Congress, 

Also eyeing the chair are former New York State assembly member Michael Blake, Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, and Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist who describes himself as "non-college-educated Mexican redneck."

The next chair will be chosen by the roughly 450 voting members of the national party committee when they meet at the beginning of February at National Harbor in Maryland for the DNC's winter meeting.

Martin appears to be the early frontrunner. A DNC insider who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely said Martin has over 150 endorsements from voting members.

But Wikler, who is also well-known by the DNC membership, is also considered a frontrunner. "The DNC insiders/establishment have significant influence over this membership, so the race will be very close," the party insider argued.

"I'm open to talking to whomever is interested in this, to listen to their vision and plan, and listen to people's different takes on what we need to do," said a DNC voting member granted anonymity to speak more freely. 

The member said, "I think the race is wide open."

"We have to go back to 50-state strategy," the member said. "We definitely have to figure out how to speak to a broader swath of working-class voters, and when I say working-class voters, I don't just mean White working-class, I mean Latino, African American, voters of colors… we have to figure out how to talk to all of those."

And the member added that in order to compete with the Republicans, the DNC also has "to drastically expand and not just go a mile wide but a mile deep on the different platforms of communication."