Minnesota DFL Chair Ken Martin running for Democratic National Committee top job

Fresh off Democrats’ losses in the presidential election and for control of the U.S. House and Senate, the longtime chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party is putting his name in the hat to lead the Democratic National Committee.

Ken Martin, 51, of Eagan announced his intention Tuesday in a video posted on X, formerly Twitter.

“I’m ready to get to work to rebuild our party,” he wrote in a caption accompanying the two-minute video.

Martin began his career in the 1990s as an intern for the late U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone. He has served as leader of the state’s Democrats since 2011, making him the longest-serving chairman in the party’s history. Martin also serves as vice chair of the DNC and president of the Association of State Democratic Chairs.

“When I took over Minnesota’s Democratic Party, we were deep in debt and disarray, reeling from major losses. But we brought people together, we built a winning coalition and we delivered results,” he said in his video. “Since then we’ve won every statewide election. Twenty-two in a row. And we are the last of blue wall states still standing. "

Martin, who attended Eden Prairie High School and graduated from the University of Kansas, said he entered politics because he was angry and frustrated with what he saw with politicians. He said Wellstone told him the only way to change an institution is to get involved and shape it from the inside.

“That is why I am running for the chair of the Democratic National Committee,” Martin said in his video. “My motto is to build, to expand, build to last. When the Trump agenda fails Americans, as it most certainly will, they need to know that we have their backs.”