The race is on for the next chair of the Democratic National Committee, and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is the first official entrant.
O’Malley kicked off his bid on Monday with a pledge to refocus the party on kitchen-table issues as Democrats begin to recalibrate after Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat.
“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,” O’Malley wrote in a social media post that linked to the New York Times story that first reported his candidacy.
O’Malley is resigning as head of the Social Security Administration, effective Nov. 29, to run for the role, he confirmed to POLITICO.
O’Malley has already been making calls to DNC members, including state party chairs, according to a person familiar with the conversations and granted anonymity to describe the private outreach.
The 2016 presidential hopeful is the first to step up in what could be a large field vying to succeed current DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, who is not expected to run again. Potential contenders include some Democrats with formidable resumes, including Wisconsin Democratic Party leader Ben Wikler, Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chair Ken Martin, ex-White House infrastructure czar Mitch Landrieu and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, among others.
The contest to lead the DNC comes as the party begins to parse the reasons behind Harris’ defeat and other major losses across the map. Centrist Democrats are seizing the chair race as an opening to try and steer the party toward the middle — arguing that Democrats have become too focused on identity politics and have fallen out of touch with the working-class voters that long constituted their base. But progressives argue that Harris tacked to the center when she took over for President Joe Biden and still lost.
Some DNC members pointed to O’Malley’s deep resume — he also chaired the Democratic Governors Association and was a former mayor of Baltimore — as a selling point for his nascent candidacy.
“As he tosses his hat in the ring as a candidate for DNC National Committee Chair, he will also bring with him a wealth of knowledge and experience that are needed to ensure successful outcomes as DNC Chair,” Cheryl Landis, a DNC member from Maryland, told POLITICO. “His service as Maryland’s governor was exemplary.”
O’Malley briefly ran for DNC chair in 2016, but withdrew from consideration. He ended his presidential bid earlier that year following a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses — failing to gain traction in part because of the star power of his opponents, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, but also his inability to distance himself from what many Marylanders pointed to as excessive taxes during his eight years as governor.
