Democrats grapple with 'jarring' lack of diversity in DNC race
The race for Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair is shaping up to be a field of largely white men — a notable development for a party that has long touted diversity within its ranks.
Roughly half a dozen candidates are running to helm the Democratic Party, almost all of them men. Nate Snyder, a former Department of Homeland Security official who is both Latino and Jewish, is the only candidate of color in the race, while former presidential hopeful Marianne Williamson is the only woman running.
While members of the party laud the candidates running and their track records, some Democrats say they are struck by the lack of gender and racial diversity in the field following Vice President Harris’s historic run last month.
“It is a bit jarring too, to where the gender diversity is in this race and the conversation, it’s also way off,” Snyder said in an interview with The Hill.
State party Chairs Ken Martin of Minnesota and Ben Wikler of Wisconsin; former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley; New York state Sen. James Skoufis; and Snyder are all running for DNC chair. Robert Houton, a former Maryland Senate candidate, is also running, but his candidacy is considered a long shot.
Williamson made a late entry into the DNC the day after Christmas, writing in a letter to members of the party “it’s important that we recognize the psychological and emotional dimensions of Trump’s appeal.”
“We need to understand it to create the energy to counter it. MAGA is a distinctly 21st century political movement and it will not be defeated by a 20th century tool kit,” she added.
Other contenders who had been mulling bids, including Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha and Michigan state Senate Majority Whip Mallory McMorrow (D), ultimately opted against running, crystalizing the race into one of mostly white men.
It’s a striking development after the party nominated its first Black woman and first woman of South Asian descent for president and is ushering in several firsts into Congress: the first Black women to represent Maryland and Delaware in the Senate, the first openly transgender member elected to Congress and the first Latino senator to represent Arizona, among others.
It also comes after a difficult election night for the party, where they struggled with key voting blocs like Latino voters.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who helms the Congressional Progressive Caucus, suggested part of the issue could be a structural one, pointing to the makeup of state parties.
“I think that a lot of the state parties have not been particularly diverse,” Jayapal said, though she noted some state parties in states like Washington state and Nebraska did have female chairs.
“I also think, like building the infrastructure of the party — the state parties — gives us a better bench when we get to the DNC chair,” she noted.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), a former DNC chair, noted that while diversity was important, other attributes were equally important.
“The most important thing for who is going to be the DNC chair is someone who is able to unify the party,” she said, “make sure that we can rebuild, focus on strategy and messaging and fundraising.”
In addition to Williamson running for DNC chair, there are women running for other leadership positions in the party, including the vice chair position.
“I think we have a great group of people running for all of the different offices, but we do need women at the table and that’s part of why I’m running,” said Michelle Deatrick, who is running for vice chair.
“Women are definitely part of our base. Women do an awful lot of the party work. Women make up the majority of the voters,” she added.
The leadership race also comes as Democrats work to navigate a post-Roe v. Wade world where the issue of abortion has been punted back to the states.
DNC vice chair candidate David Hogg also emphasized the importance of diversity in age when it comes to leadership positions within the party.
“The party needs to make sure that we are at the local level, the county level, the state level, and the national level, getting young people involved in these positions,” Hogg told The Hill. “[I’m] not saying they need to be the top of the party automatically, but just getting them the experience they need to be able to know how to get things done.”
At the same time, candidates running for DNC chair are touting their track records and pointing to elements of their plans that prioritize bringing back key Democratic voting blocs.
“People should just judge me on my actions,” Martin told The Hill in an interview earlier this month. “And, you know, we have built a multiracial, multigenerational coalition within the DFL,” he continued, referencing the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
“This is a big part of my plan is making sure that we actually are present and on the ground and building durable relationships with voters well before we ever ask them to do something for us, which is to vote for our candidates,” he explained.
O’Malley released a memo earlier this month touting the importance of building a DNC “inclusive of the rich, diverse talent that makes up” the party across the country. The memo calls for the inclusion of diverse-owned firms and diverse staff along the lines of race, background and region.
“Democrats believe in the dignity of every human-being. The next DNC Chair must build an operation that reflects and speaks to our big tent and the diversity of America,” a spokesperson for O’Malley said. “That’s why Gov. O’Malley’s very first platform announcement was about inclusion at the DNC. Every day between now and February 1 he will make it clear to DNC Members he intends to lead on this priority for our party.”
Other members of the party agree, urging the party to focus on winning back the blocs of voters that made up their winning coalition in past election cycles.
“We’ve got to make sure that the consultants that we bring in are people who actually know how to activate the communities that we need to win campaigns, and that’s where the money needs to be going,” said Aisha Mills, a former president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund and Institute.
“And it could be a white man at the top of the DNC, it could be a Black woman at the top of the DNC, and anybody in between. That’s always going to be the thing that matters, not the — not the figurehead diversity.”