Can Ken Counter Crypto-Klan Coup?

PRESENTED BY NOISY MINERS

I’m going to pretend I got this review of the DNC elections out yesterday—since I didn’t, I’m interspersing it with photos and clips from today’s Democratic mobilization against Trump and Musk in the Capital. Every morning this week, people are protesting at 1900 E St. NW in front of the Office of Personnel Management from 7:30 am to 8:30 am—if you’re in DC, join them.

The fiercely progressive Minnesotan Ken Martin is the new leader of the Democratic Party, easily outpacing his closest opponent, Wisconsin chair Ben Wikler, in Saturday’s election.

Ken is joined by five newly elected vice chairs of the Democratic National Committee who represent the breadth and strength of the party, none of whom are beholden to the moneyed power centers of the party—voter-protection lawyer Reyna Walters-Morgan of North Carolina, labor organizer Artie Blanco of Nevada, gun-violence activist David Hogg of Florida, state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta of Pennsylvania, and Nebraska state chair and climate activist Jane Kleeb.

I’ve known and admired Ben Wikler ever since I met him at the Copenhagen climate talks 15 years ago. Ben is a rare political talent, an inspiring orator, and a deeply good human. But when I checked in with other fellow Bernie Sanders allies and climate hawks who are DNC voting members—such as Jane Kleeb and DNC climate council chair Michelle Deatrick—they universally, unequivocally supported Ken Martin, the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor chair.

Raised in poverty by his single, teenaged mother, Ken went to the University of Kansas and became a political operative and labor and environmental organizer, mentored by the late Sen Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.). In his fourteen years as head of the state party, Ken restored the health of Minnesota Democrats and helped them win every single statewide election. Meanwhile, he supported and fought on behalf of state parties and grassroots Democratic organizations, successfully negotiating with the DNC to invest in local Democrats in Republican-dominated states.

As a power broker, Ken has many of the traits of the late Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada—he is a consummate listener, is always charting a course to political victory, knows how to count votes, and is driven by a fiery progressive anger against the ruling class, as exemplifed by his challenge to the Democratic Party in his final appeal as a candidate:

Ken easily won the election for DNC chair on the first ballot, with 58 percent of the vote. Wikler’s support from national heavyweights like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), and LinkedIn billionaire Reid Hoffman ended up backfiring, as DNC members received threats from donors, governors, and members of Congress about what might happen to them for supporting the wrong candidate.

I’ve been deeply engrossed in the elections for the leadership of the Democratic National Committee for the past several months, motivated by my forlorn hope in the American experiment and my love of building spreadsheets and reading bylaws.

I’ve learned that an election with 450 voters can be a very healthy one. To meet every voter and understand them is a commitment but a human amount of effort. Even a barely competitive election, like the Secretary's race won by popular incumbent Jason Rae, is very good for the health of the organization; it brings the top priorities to the forefront and exposes the perspectives the office holders have.

In particular, digital strategist Tim Lim’s late challenge to National Finance Chair Chris Korge, a traditional big-money Democratic fundraiser, forced a much-needed debate about how the sclerotic, often toxic methods of fundraising upon which the Democratic Party now depends. With the backing of top labor officials and other reformers, Lim picked up a respectable third of the vote after only two weeks of campaigning.

It’s certainly true that much politicking took place in private, with many one-on-one calls, negotiations, and several constituency forums that were closed to the public, including those with members of Congress. But there was also a lot in public view, led by the official DNC forums and the actual election day, as well as media interviews. The informed interviews with highly engaged journalist-activists like Democracy Docket’s Marc Elias and Hopium Chronicles’ Simon Rosenberg gave the best insight into the chair candidates and the structure of the DNC.

Long-shot candidates like James Skoufis, Jason Paul, Nate Snyder, and Marianne Williamson forced a public discussion of specific, problematic power nodes like Mothership Strategies, Reid Hoffman, and SKDKnickerbocker. On that point, Martin O’Malley deserves a ton of credit for being a viable candidate who was surgically critical of billionaire influence on the race and the party.

Being deeply involved in Democratic Party organizational politics takes a certain kind of person, and shapes a certain kind of person. From Jaime Harrison to Kalyn Free, from Shasti Conrad to Joe Paolino, from Virginia McGregor to Artie Blanco, these are people who are fiercely proud about their distinct and different identities and heritage and communities, while also forging bonds of deep loyalty to their fellow Democrats.

It is a rare and special ability to hold in your mind the knowledge that race, gender, sexuality, language, ethnicity, geography, age, health, religious faith are real and important every day to each of us, and, at the same time, that love, fellowship, and solidarity are all that matters. But the practice of pluralistic democratic politics can forge that ability in all of us.

I found it profound that, even in a diminished, restricted form, the party comes together to make meaningful decisions through deliberative assembly where each person has the same vote, no greater or less than the other members.In that moment, each member of the National Committee stands as an equal to their neighbor. That is the essential premise of the American experiment: that humans have the potential for self-government. The present test of that proposition is whether we can organize to turn back an autocratic coup. Let’s pass that test.

And no, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Ken Martin was elected leader of the Democrats on Saturday and that Congressional Democrats discovered their spines on Monday.

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