You may not know him, but Democrats on Saturday elected Ken Martin, the party leader in Minnesota, as its new national chair.
Martin, a former Harris-Walz campaign staffer, will lead the party’s opposition to President Donald Trump after being elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
Democrats elect Ken Martin, the party leader in Minnesota, as national chair https://t.co/5U83wvCQ5D pic.twitter.com/77PxKfshtI
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) February 2, 2025
Ken Martin, 51, a low-profile seasoned Midwestern political operator, says his party “already has the right message” and is now one of the most important players in the party’s attempt to make a comeback after losing the 2024 presidential election in landslide fashion.
In his first message as leader, he quickly offered a warning to President Trump and his allies, saying:
“We’re coming. This is a new Democratic Party. We’re taking the gloves off.”
Since running for chairman, Martin emphasised the need to connect with working-class voters who have increasingly drifted from the party.
During his stumps, Martin even invoked his brother, a union carpenter and Trump supporter, to describe the splintering coalition.
“I don’t rub elbows with billionaires or Hollywood elites, I rub elbows with working people in union halls, on picket lines, at civil rights marches and at protests,” Martin said at a recent candidate forum.
“I’m running for chair because that’s what the next DNC will look like when I’m the next chairman. That’s who we’re fighting for.”
He is known more for his skills as a tactician than as a television pundit – and believes that is how it should be.
“I will throw the punches so they don’t have to, and we will go on the offence against Donald Trump,” he said. “That’s the role that I will play as spokesperson.”
Jeanna Repass, the Kansas Democratic chair and an unsuccessful candidate for DNC vice chair, described Martin as “a workhorse” instead of “a champion.”
“Your workhorse pulls the plow, and you need that. But we don’t have that voice, that champion, to get out in front of us,” Repass said. “Donald Trump, for all of his faults, is able to get up there and lie with impunity and do it convincingly, and I don’t hear or see that voice in our party.”
Martin’s election means it is the first time since 2011 that the DNC will not be run by either a woman or someone of an ethnic minority.
Martin succeeds Jaime Harrison of South Carolina atop the Democratic National Committee. Harrison did not seek another term after the 2024 election when Trump became the first Republican to win the popular vote in two decades and made modest gains with core Democratic constituencies — African Americans, Latinos and working-class voters, among them, according to the Associated Press (AP).
Martin easily defeated Wisconsin party chair Ben Wikler, who had earned the backing of leading Democratic donors and leaders in Congress, including the top Democrats in the House and Senate.
While Martin promised bold changes, he said he could not discuss specific actions until the party conducted a postelection review to determine what went wrong in November.
Martin on Saturday promised to refocus the Democratic message on working-class voters, strengthen Democratic infrastructure across the country and improve the party’s anti-Trump rapid response system. He has pledged not to shy away from Democrats’ dedication to diversity and minority groups, a pillar of the modern-day party.
It is unclear how long the process might take. Martin said it would be completed “as quickly as possible” and then released publicly.
Martin’s emergence comes at a time when public perception of the Democratic Party has hit rock bottom.
Just 31% of voters have a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released last week.