Democrats who served in party leadership during the unsuccessful 2024 cycle are on the defensive.
The Democratic National Committee held its first in-person candidate forum for its upcoming elections on Thursday in Detroit, where incumbent candidates for secretary, treasurer and vice chair of civic engagement and voter participation found themselves in the hot seat, facing opponents who questioned why the party should reinstall officers of a losing team.
“We’re going to have a new chair, we’re going to have new strategic leadership, and I really believe that we need stable people in certain roles such as the secretary,” Jason Rae, current secretary of the DNC, said in the forum.
DNC Chair Jaime Harrison and Vice Chair Henry R. Muñoz III are not seeking reelection, opening their roles to a slate of new candidates.
Calling for more of the same is never an easy task in politics, let alone after a bruising election cycle that’s left many Democrats calling for a complete party overhaul. Those tensions are now spilling out in even the most behind-the-scenes party leadership races.
For months, DNC committee members have raised concerns about leaders’ transparency on the party’s budgeting and communication. In past interviews with NOTUS, some have called out “unfair” practices in the delegate selection process and opaque spending.
Rae’s opponent, New Jersey Democrat Marilyn Davis, argued Thursday that the first steps to repairing the party would be getting rid of its current leaders.
“Yesterday’s DNC cannot be today’s DNC,” Davis said. “We need to rebuild trust with the 15 million voters who did not vote for us this election cycle, and that starts with changing the leaders at the DNC.”
She’s proposing to create a “private and protected” virtual membership portal for all members to access information relevant to their local parties and communities.
Rae insisted that he has been “hyper-focused” on member engagement, adding that he has earned the endorsement of over 250 voting members supporting his reelection campaign.
“There’s always room for improvement when it comes to communications and things that my team can continue to do,” Rae said. “We’re a small but mighty team. This is a volunteer position and I treat it like a 40-hour-a-week job. For me it has really been about constant communication.”
Asked why she should be reelected as DNC treasurer after the party burned through a big budget only to lose control in the White House and Congress, Virginia McGregor emphasized the limits of her role.
“I’m not sure everyone understands that the DNC treasurer role is a very specific role,” said McGregor, who is facing North Carolina Democrat Matt Hughes.
“My number one responsibility is our FEC reports, making sure they’re on time and we have no violations ... and looking at our banking relationships,” McGregor added.
Hughes suggests the party look at things differently, saying the treasurer’s role “is a nuts and bolts role, but it also needs to be one that we’re not leading from behind on.”
“The treasurer should be working with the chair, with other officers, with the executive committee and the full DNC to outline our budgetary priorities,” he said.
A similar dynamic played out with Reyna Walters-Morgan, the incumbent vice chair of civic engagement and voter participation, who is facing Reps. Joyce Beatty, Nikema Williams and former DNC Vice Chair Michael Blake in her bid for reelection.
Beatty and Blake argued that the party failed to have a presence on the ground and combat misinformation during the election. (Williams missed Thursday’s forum due to sickness, the moderators announced.) Walters-Morgan tried to emphasize experience, pointing to the party’s revamp of iwillvote.com and the development of the DNC’s national voter assistance hotline.
“We have to make sure that we take all those great things that Reyna said,” Beatty said. “As great as they were, we weren’t able to get them out into the streets, and that’s the most important thing.”
“Because of my experience, I have a clear vision for the future,” Walters-Morgan said. “I think we need a vice chair who understands what the [voter participation] programs have looked like.”
But experience at the DNC may prove to be an unfavorable quality this year.
—
Calen Razor is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.