Minnesota, Wisconsin Democratic Party leaders at center of race for next DNC chair

Members of the Democratic National Committee will vote Saturday on the next person to lead the party and serve as a public foil to President Donald Trump over the next four years.

The race pits Midwest neighbors Ken Martin, the chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, and Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler against one another. Six other Democrats including former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson are also in the field.

The winner will lead a party reset after Republicans took control of Congress and the White House in November’s election. The group of candidates agreed that Democrats should field a post-mortem assessment to size up what went wrong in 2024 and how they can make better inroads with voters heading into the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential race.

They’ve also said that effort should center more campaign efforts in the states, and less directed toward Washington, D.C.

Martin met with DNC members Friday and tried to lock up the 225 or so votes he would need to win. He’s told Democrats from around the country that he would be the best option to lead the party forward because he has a strong track record winning elections in Minnesota and building up campaign infrastructure. And Martin touts the fact that Democrats have held onto all statewide offices during his 14-year term leading the Minnesota DFL.

“We’ve been having conversations for months now and weeks with voters in this race, listening to their concerns, hearing their thoughts, having those personal conversations,” Martin said as he accepted an endorsement from DNC members from Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Friday. “Those conversations give them a sense that I’m the best candidate to lead this party. I think in the end, that’s what’s going to help put us over the top.”

Wikler says the stretch is laudable, but the national party needs someone who has won in a battleground state like Wisconsin.

“In my state, where Republicans smashed unions and suppressed votes and gerrymandered maps, we fought back year over year and faced down the biggest attacks the GOP could levy and unrigged our state,” Wikler said during a candidate panel last week. “And now we have to unrig the country.”

The hundreds of voting members of the DNC will hear pitches from the candidates Saturday morning and weigh in on who should replace outgoing chair Jaime Harrison. On Friday, several noted the gravity of the situation.

“We’re all trying to decide what the future of the party is after this devastating, devastating loss of the White House and both chambers of Congress,” Democrat Harry Khanna, of Virginia, said Friday. 

“I think we’re all here just listening to all the folks that want to lead us forward and trying to make the best decision. You know, kind of in a like a fog of war, you know, we don’t really know what to expect over the next four years.”