As DNC chair race heats up, what's at stake for Democrats?

Democrats are in a fragile period of possibility and peril following their monumental drubbing in the 2024 national elections and ahead of Donald Trump's return to office with a unified Republican Congress. Amid this period, several Democrats have tossed their hats in the ring to lead the party as the next chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Some in the running already enjoy a national profile, like former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley. Others, like Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair Ken Martin and his Wisconsin counterpart Ben Wikler, are less known outside their respective circles. But all the candidates have an eye on the party's precarious future in a new era of American politics.

An 'out-of-touch' party?

After the Democrats' stinging loss to Trump and shedding of "non-white, non-college educated" supporters that once made up the party's grassroots backbone, "fixing the DNC's culture and structure must be at the top of the list of priorities," said DNC members David Atkins and Michael Kapp at Washington Monthly. As it exists now, the institution is "top-heavy, lacks transparency (even to its members), relies on often-out-of-touch Beltway consultants, and endows its chair with too much power."

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"Many insiders" see the race as a two-man contest between Wikler and Martin, said Politico. Both are "white guys from Upper Midwestern states" with "little daylight between them." Martin, considered more of a "behind-the-scenes political operative" wants to see the party "focus more on economic issues and less on culture war topics," said The Wall Street Journal. Voters think the GOP "best represents the interests of the working class and the poor" and "don't believe the Democratic Party is fighting for them anymore," Martin said to the Journal.

By comparison, the recent candidacy of Faiz Shakir, former campaign manager for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), could "shake up a contest that has largely focused on party mechanics rather than its ideology," Politico said. "We cannot expect working-class audiences to see us any differently if we are not offering anything new or substantive to attract their support," Shakir said in a letter to DNC members announcing his candidacy obtained by The Nation.

Ending a 'deference to economic elites'

Acknowledging it "may be too late for him to win," Shakir justified his candidacy as something "needed to shake up the race," said The Associated Press. There seemed to be an appetite for Shakir's brand of progressive populism even before he entered the race. Just days earlier, the progressive Sunrise Movement group challenged candidates to "revive President Obama's ban on contributions from corporate lobbyists and PACs to the DNC." Simply by entering the race, Shakir has ensured the contest "will be more sharply focused on ending the DNC's deference to economic elites," said The Nation.

For others, the choice of DNC chair is a question of sheer political skill, rather than an ideological refocusing. Supporters of O'Malley "see him as someone who brings about real change" and a "proven political winner," said The Baltimore Sun. At the same time, he has "expressed some degree of openness to working with the Trump administration."

Members of the DNC are set to meet in early February to elect their new chair. Whoever wins "must be open to reforms and help the organization adapt to modern campaign and media environments," said Atkins and Kapp. It's the only way Democrats can "regain their lost footing."