Democratic Party chair frontrunner acknowledges 'we're getting our butts kicked right now'

A top contender in the race to become the next Democratic National Committee chair acknowledged after last month's elections that "we're getting our butts kicked right now."

Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair Ken Martin, a DNC vice chair who has led the association of state Democratic Party chairs, says the marching order for his party is "win the U.S. House back, win the Senate back and, of course, win the presidency in ’28."

But Martin, considered a DNC frontrunner, emphasized that equally important is "making sure that we are growing our party and contesting in every public policy arena throughout this nation, from school boards to the mayorships, to country boards, to city councils to state legislative races."

Democrats suffered major setbacks up and down the ballot in the 2024 elections as former President Trump recaptured the White House and the GOP flipped the Senate and held onto its fragile majority in the House. 

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The aggressive strategy of President-elect Trump's campaign and Republicans up and down the ballot of appearances on podcasts and other non-traditional media is credited, in part, for the gains they made in winning the support of working class, minority, younger and low-propensity voters.

Current DNC chair Jaime Harrison is not seeking another four-year term steering the national party committee. The next chair will be chosen by the roughly 450 voting members of the national party committee when they meet Feb. 1 at National Harbor in Maryland for the DNC's winter meeting.

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Another top contender is Ben Wikler, who has steered the state Democratic Party in battleground Wisconsin since 2019 and, like Martin, is well known by the voting members.

Also considered competitive is Martin O'Malley, the former two-term Maryland governor and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate who served as commissioner of the Social Security Administration the past year. 

Also running are James Skoufis, a New York state senator who launched his long shot bid last month, and former Department of Homeland Security official Nate Snyder, who announced his uphill climb for chair last week.

Fox News Digital interviewed Martin, Wikler and O'Malley ahead of last week's meeting of the DNC's executive committee, which was the first time the panel had gathered since November's election.

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Martin said if he becomes chair, the first thing he would do is "figure out a plan to win. And we need to start writing that plan, making sure we’re looking underneath the hood. How much money do we have at the party? What are the contracts? What contracts do we need to get rid of? And, frankly, bringing all of our stakeholder groups together, that’s the biggest thing.

"We don’t have a lot of time," Martin emphasized. "There’s elections bearing down on us in New Jersey and Virginia in just 10 months, so we’ve got a lot of work to do."

Martin has repeatedly pledged he'll "contest every race in every zip code."

"It absolutely is realistic," he told Fox News Digital. "I’m not going to take a scarcity mindset when we just spent close to $2 billion on a presidential election. … There’s enough resources around for the DNC to actually start contesting races up and down the ballot."

Even though he says he's won commitments of support from nearly half the voting members he needs to become the chair, Martin said, "I’m not taking anything for granted. I certainly am proud of the support I’ve seen so far. But I’ve got a long ways to go."

But, he added, "I’m clearly ahead right now. I like where we’re at."

Wikler, in his interview, highlighted that "the goal for the Democratic Party should not be to win 47 seats or 51 seats in the Senate. We should be aiming bigger because we know the values of the Democratic Party around a country that works for working people and around freedom and dignity and respect for everyone. Those are deeply shared values across the country.

"I think a lot of change is needed in order to grow stronger, get our message to everyone and enlist support from everyone who thinks that this country should work for folks who have to work to keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table."

Wikler said the party needs to show voters "that we're fighting for them against those who would try to rig the economy for those at the very top and deliver that message in places where people aren't paying attention to politics much, but they know what they're struggling with in their own lives.

"That means communicating in clear language in a way that shows people that we see them. And with our actions showing that we're fighting for them to bring costs down and make sure that working people have a fair shot in this country," he added.

Wikler pointed to the success of Democrats in his home state, a crucial battleground, as a reason he'll be competitive in the chair race.

He said the party is "united in its desire to win elections. And, in Wisconsin, we have some of the most closely fought, intense elections. We've had to learn to deal with everything that Republican candidates and campaigns throw our way. And I think the energy around it, figuring out how to get stronger and bigger and reach more people in more places, will give me a path to winning the DNC chair's race and then working to unite this party to fight and win up and down the ballot."

O'Malley, who turns 62 next month, is the oldest of the candidates running for chair.

He said he's running for DNC chair "because I love my country, and the only way we're going to save the Republic is if the Democratic Party gets itself battle ready as quickly as possible."

"I have had the honor to prove my chops as an operational turnaround leader at every level of government, including recently at Social Security for the president," he touted. 

Pointing to his past steering the Democratic Governors Association, he noted, "I'm the only candidate that's actually chaired a national committee — the Democratic governors — and I'm the only candidate that's actually run for office and been elected to office, city council, mayor, governor. And we need to recruit people all across the ballot in order to bring our party back."

O'Malley said that job No. 1 if he's elected chair "is to bring us together and to understand what we did well and what we did poorly the last time. But, most importantly, we've got to focus on registering more people as Democrats. We've got to return to the economic message that has always been the core of this party, that we've veered away from in many people's eyes in this last election. And we need to defend voting rights everywhere, not just in swing states."

Asked if he's got a shot against Martin and Wikler, who sit on the committee and are much better known by the voting members, O'Malley said, "I believe I do. I've found a whole lot of people that realize this is no longer a kind of caretaker election for DNC chair, but it's a change maker. And, for that reason, I'm finding doors blowing open all across the country."

Skoufis, in an interview last week with Fox News Radio, argued that Democrats need a fresh face and an aggressive outsider to run the DNC. 

He also made the case that the party needs to do a better job reading the room and not just be the anti-Trump party.