Democrat lawmakers visit ICE facilities holding detained students
A group of congressional Democrats were in Louisiana to visit Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities.
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin is proposing rule changes that would, among other things, require party officers to remain neutral in primary elections amid a movement being led by younger progressives to catapult “asleep-at-the-wheel” incumbents out of office.
“No DNC officer should ever attempt to influence the outcome of a primary election whether on behalf of an incumbent or a challenger,” Martin said Thursday during a conference call.
Martin’s proposal − dubbed the “Organize Everywhere, Win Anywhere” plan comes a week after DNC Vice Chair David Hogg threw down a gauntlet when he announced his group, Leaders We Deserve, was pouring $20 million toward challenging “out-of-touch, ineffective” Democratic officeholders.
If approved at the party’s August meeting, Hogg would be forced to either resign from the DNC or divorce himself from the organization he co-founded, which has pledged it will assist a new generation of candidates running against incumbents in safe blue districts but also against Republicans incumbents and for open seats.
The chairman said voters should decide who primary nominees are, and that this change is not about shielding incumbents or boosting challengers.
“I am a huge fan of David Hogg, and I’m glad he’s a part of our officer corps, but it’s important for us to maintain the trust that we have built with Democratic voters and to keep our thumb off the scale as party officers,” Martin said.
Hogg has ruffled the feathers of some veteran Democrats since being elected the youngest vice chair in history back in February. Critics have argued the party doesn’t have time for infighting while fending off President Donald Trump’s second administration.
But the 25-year-old political activist, a survivor of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, told USA TODAY last week that the Democratic Party is facing a “crisis moment” within its own base that younger, more progressive voices cannot ignore.
“The division in our party right now is not so much: are you on the left, are you in the center,” Hogg said. “It is, do you want to fight or do you want to roll over and die?”
Dems have less confidence in their leaders than GOP do in theirs, poll finds
A series of surveys have spotlighted how Democrats are depressed with their party’s leadership in the early stages of Trump 2.0.
Things haven’t improved much even as other public polls have shown the country beginning to sour on the president’s actions, particularly in terms of the economy.
A Gallup survey conducted in the first two weeks of April, for instance, asked voters if they had faith in Washington leaders to recommend or do the right thing for the economy.
Among Republicans about 76% of respondents said they had a great deal or fair amount of faith in their congressional leadership. Asked the same question, only 39% of Democrats said they same.
“We have to win back those voters,” Hogg told USA TODAY last Wednesday.
“We have to show them how the party is changing and how we are fighting for them, not just to say don’t vote for Donald Trump, but vote for us, because we are here to revive the American Dream that far too many young people feel like no longer exists.”
‘Shift outside Washington’: DNC leaders boast about ‘turbocharge’ plan
As Democrats try to pick up the pieces, DNC officials have tried to downplay the infighting and point to how the larger package of reforms Martin unveiled Thursday will “turbocharge” and bring more transparency to the party.
Joined on Thursday’s call by former DNC Chair Howard Dean and Jane Kleeb, president of the Association of State Democratic Parties, Martin defended the proposals and investments as being more grassroots focused.
“Democrats have over performed in nearly every single special election this year, and we can’t afford to lose that momentum,” said Martin, who previously served as head of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
“I’m done with Democrats myopically focusing on just a few battleground states every few years. We are not simply a presidential campaign committee.”
Under a new state partnership program agreement, for instance, each state party will receive $17,500 a month, which Martin said represents a $5,000 per month increase for every single state party. Those in Republican-controlled states will also receive an additional investment of $5,000 a month putting their total at $22,500.
Party officials said these investments mean that state parties can plan better ahead of elections by hiring more staff, training candidates and assessing each state’s four-year strategic plan.
Much of the plan mirrors the 50-state strategy Dean implemented more than two decades ago head of the DNC, which was credited with the Democratic victories in the 2006 and 2008 elections.
“The DNC job has got to shift outside Washington,” Dean said.
“We cannot be a Washington centric party and expect to win, especially in an era when the ordinary working people of this country are so much under attack by the guy who many of them voted for.”
Contributing: Sudiksha Kochi