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The man who now becomes the captain of the foundering DNC ship is Minnesota state party chair Ken Martin, who won on the first ballot by 246 ayes out of the 428 members who voted.
Martin is not a household name, but he’s well-known in political circles:
He has led his state party since 2011 and is a vice chairman of the national party. He also leads the Association of State Democratic Committees, a body that lobbies for state parties within the national committee — and a power center that has irritated other D.N.C. officials, but one that his allies see as a sign of his strengths.
As our Becky Noble wrote, he said at a recent forum, “There are a lot of good billionaires out there that have been with Democrats, who share our values, and we will take their money. But we’re not taking money from those bad billionaires.” Huh?
Democrats just elected a white male as their DNC Chair.
Ken Martin has so much diversity!
He’s who said it’s okay when Dems take money from billionaires because they’re the “good billionaires.” pic.twitter.com/F4UaFxOV2y
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) February 1, 2025
Didn’t we get enough of Dem Minnesota politicians during the fall campaign?
The Democrats just chose Tim Walz’ “close friend,” Ken Martin, to be their new DNC Chair.
The Democrats still have no idea why they lost. 😂 pic.twitter.com/dXU2rZed3h
— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) February 1, 2025
In the leadup to the vote, the Democrats appeared not to have learned much from their recent disaster at the ballot box, and instead of focusing on the things people care about, they obsessed over what they think is the real reason they lost—“messaging.” Here’s the problem they haven‘t seemed to have figured out yet: if your message stinks, no amount of massaging it will help.
The vote at the D.N.C.’s winter meeting capped a monthslong race that focused on party mechanics and messaging, rather than on sharp ideological or establishment-versus-activist fights that have characterized other party leadership contests.
A failure to adjust:
