Democrats to decide whether Minnesota’s Ken Martin will lead the DNC as party chair

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD. - Will Minnesota’s Ken Martin be the new head of the Democratic National Committee? The party will decide Saturday as it seeks a leader to help counter President Donald Trump.

The eight candidates in the running to replace outgoing DNC Chair Jamie Harrison, are fighting for the support of 448 DNC voting members.

Martin, the DFL chair; Wisconsin’s Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley are seen as the three frontrunners. Party insiders say Martin is the favorite of the three.

“I’m going to just keep working hard to have as many conversations as I can these next three days to make sure we run through the tape and we win this thing,” Martin said in an interview Wednesday.

DFL politicos descended on Washington, D.C. ahead of the vote that will take place at the nearby Gaylord National Resort Convention Center.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and DNC member Ron Harris, who was most recently the state campaign director for the Harris-Walz campaign, were in attendance Friday. Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan also plans to attend.

“I think he’s the most qualified person to the role,” Ron Harris said of Martin on Friday. “When I think about the turnaround operation that he had in Minnesota when he first became chair, he was facing financial deficit, facing a perception problem about what people felt the Minnesota Democrat Party was doing.”

The three leading candidates have been locked in a fight over endorsements.

But those numbers total more than the 448 DNC voting members, and none of the campaigns has released a full list of supporters.

Though Martin may have the most backers, some party members think the race may still be up for grabs.

Ellison, who navigated a tight DNC chair race himself in 2017, said Friday he was working to whip votes for Martin, who he’s “100 percent” behind.

Ellison’s close opponent at the time, former DNC Chair Tom Perez, ultimately won the support of Joe Biden, then a vice president. Though former President Barack Obama stayed out of the race, Perez had served as his labor secretary.

Ellison said he hopes major political figures like Obama and Biden stay out of the race, which they have so far steered clear.

“Them putting their fingers on the scale impacted my chances,” Ellison said. “I just hope that the rank and file can just make their decision.”

O’Malley admitted Friday he thinks Martin is the likely frontrunner in the race but said he thinks DNC members' second choice is still up for grabs.

Candidates need a majority of votes to win. If none receives a majority of votes on the first ballot, the lowest vote-getter is eliminated and the next round of voting continues until a majority is reached.

“There are delegations that have been having meetings here about who they’re going to second. So that tells you a lot, I think,” O’Malley said. “Because they wouldn’t be having meetings as delegations about where they’re going second if they thought that this was all wrapped up on the first ballot.”

Over the past decade, Martin helped raise $210 million for the Minnesota party and landed key Democratic wins, including a trifecta at the State Capitol in 2022.

But heading into the race, Idaho DNC National Committeeman David Roth, said he ultimately decided to back O’Malley over Martin because of the DFL’s loss of the safely blue Roseville-area House seat.

“By all accounts, literally every single person has said they could have put any Democrat in that seat and won. And they put someone who didn’t live there,” Roth said referencing Curtis Johnson, who resigned from the seat after a judge said he was ineligible to serve because he did not meet the state’s residency requirement.

“When you’re the state party chair, the buck stops there,” Roth continued. “The Minnesota Legislature, the one that you were claiming credit for ... you were there to take credit when it was working, and now that it’s got a problem, it’s not your fault?”