Politics
'Important opportunity': DNC chair candidates reveal how they will rebound after disastrous 2024 results
Nearly three months after Democrats’ major setbacks up and down the ballot in the 2024 elections, the party gathers on Saturday to choose new leadership.
It’s the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) first formal step to try and emerge from the political wilderness and rebound in upcoming elections after President Donald Trump recaptured the White House and Republicans flipped the Senate, held onto their fragile majority in the House and made major gains with working-class, minority and younger voters.
And with no clear leader in the party, the next DNC chair will become the de facto face of Democrats from coast to coast and will make major decisions on messaging, strategy, infrastructure and where to spend millions in political contributions.
“It’s an important opportunity for us to not only refocus the party and what we present to voters, but also an opportunity for us to look at how we internally govern ourselves,” longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley told Fox News.
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The eight candidates vying for Democratic National Committee chair sit for a forum that was repeatedly interrupted by protesters at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Jan. 30, 2025. (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser)
Buckley, a former DNC vice chair, said he’s “very excited about the potential of great reform within the party.” And he emphasized he hoped for “significantly more support for the state parties. That’s going to be a critical step towards our return to majority status.”
Eight candidates are vying to succeed DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, who decided against seeking a second straight four-year term steering the national party committee.
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The next chair, as well as vice chairs and other officers, will be chosen by the roughly 450 DNC voting members gathered for the party’s winter meeting, which is being held this year at National Harbor just outside Washington, D.C.
Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chair Ken Martin, a DNC vice chair who has led the association of state Democratic Party chairs, is considered to be the frontrunner for chair heading into Saturday’s election, with Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler close behind.
Minnesota Democratic Party chair Ken Martin (left) and Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler (right), two leading contenders in the Democratic National Committee chair race, at the DNC executive committee meeting Dec. 12, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser)
Martin recently told Fox News Digital that 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.”
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Wikler, in a Fox News Digital interview, emphasized that 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.”
Wikler, who pointed to the success of Democrats in his home state, a crucial battleground, added, “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.”
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 during former President Biden’s last year in office.
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O’Malley told Fox News Digital 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.”
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.”
Among the longer-shot candidates for chair are late entry Faiz Shakir, who ran the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign of progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Marianne Williamson, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2020 and 2024 Democratic presidential nominations.
“This party’s not going to rise up unless there’s some deeper honesty,” Williamson told reporters Thursday after the final chair election forum, as she took aim at the Democrats’ establishment.
The debate during the three-month DNC campaign sprint has mostly focused on the logistics of modern political campaigns, such as media strategy and messaging, fundraising and grassroots organizing and get-out-the-vote efforts. On those nuts-and-bolts issues, the candidates are mostly in agreement that changes are needed to win back blue-collar voters who now support Republicans.
But the final forum included a heavy focus on systemic racism and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, issues that appeared to hurt Democrats at the ballot box in November.
A protester is removed by security after heckling at a Democratic National Committee chair election debate at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Jan. 30, 2025 (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser)
And the forum, moderated and carried live on MSNBC and held at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., devolved into chaos early on as a wave of left-wing protesters repeatedly interrupted the primetime event, heckling over concerns of climate change and billionaires’ influence in America’s elections before they were forcibly removed by security.
The chair election comes as a new national poll spells more trouble for the Democrats.
Only 31% of respondents in a Quinnipiac University survey conducted over the past week had a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party, with 57% seeing the party in an unfavorable light.
“This is the highest percentage of voters having an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party since the Quinnipiac University Poll began asking this question,” the survey’s release noted.
Meanwhile, 43% of those questioned had a favorable view of the GOP, with 45% holding an unfavorable opinion, which was the highest favorable opinion for the Republican Party ever in Quinnipiac polling.
Thousands of Agriculture Department employees who were fired last month must be reinstated in their old positions for at least 45 days, a board that handles federal worker disputes ordered on Wednesday.
The fired employees were on probationary status and relatively new in their positions, swept up in the Trump administration’s push to rapidly reduce the size of the federal work force in part by targeting those types of workers. Probationary employees have fewer Civil Service protections than other government workers who have been in their jobs longer, and have been seen by President Trump and Elon Musk, the tech billionaire leading the downsizing effort, as the easiest to fire.
Even so, there are rules that agencies must follow when firing probationary employees, including a requirement that managers document details when alleging poor performance.
Cathy Harris, the chair of the Merit Systems Protection Board, the administrative body where employees can appeal adverse actions, said in her order on Wednesday that she had “reasonable grounds” to believe that agencies that had fired probationary workers violated a law that dictates proper personnel practices.
Currently, the board’s decision applies only to probationary employees at the Agriculture Department who were fired on Feb. 13, estimated to be 5,000 to 6,000 people.
The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The order signals that the board could rule in favor of other fired probationary employees if the Office of Special Counsel, which brought the Agriculture Department case forward, produces similar evidence that other agencies violated personnel laws as well.
“Based on the evidence I’ve seen so far, there is nothing unique or singular or atypical about the firing of the U.S.D.A. employees,” the special counsel, Hampton Dellinger, said in an interview with The New York Times.
Fired employees took their case to Mr. Dellinger’s office, an independent agency within the government that investigates whistle-blower complaints and allegations of wrongful dismissal. Mr. Dellinger brought the case of the Agriculture Department terminations to the Merit Systems Protection Board and asked the board to pause the firings so that he could further investigate what had happened.
As Mr. Dellinger and Ms. Harris scrutinize and wind back some aspects of Mr. Trump’s mass firings, they do so while fighting to keep their own positions. Mr. Trump fired them both, and after successfully challenging the decisions in federal court they were temporarily reinstated. The Trump administration is appealing judges’ orders that they be allowed to keep their jobs.
Agencies interpreted Mr. Trump’s order guiding the implementation of Elon Musk’s government-gutting initiative as a directive to fire probationary employees, who have mostly been in their jobs for less than one year. As a result, more than 20,000 probationary workers, including veterans were fired, according to a Times count.
The merit board’s order bodes well for fired probationary employees from other agencies that the Office of Special Counsel is investigating, said Michelle Bercovici, a lawyer with the Alden Law Group, which initially filed a complaint about the firings to the office on Feb. 14.
Jacob Bushno of Illinois was among the Agriculture Department employees fired last month, even though he had received a positive work evaluation and had only seven days left until he would have been in his position with the Forest Service for a year.
Mr. Bushno reached out to his former supervisor on Wednesday after he learned about the board’s order. He said his former supervisor had no information about the order or what would happen next.
The Trump administration’s targeting of probationary employees in its job-cutting pursuits was going after “low-hanging fruit,” said Max Stier, the president of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit that works to promote excellence and best practices in the federal government.
“They’ve done it in a clumsy way,” Mr. Stier said on Wednesday. “And therefore they’ve made a lot of mistakes.”
Politics
Blue state GOP lawmaker goes viral for exposing state's spending proposals: 'People were appalled'
Debates over the Golden State’s spending practices continue to make waves nationwide, and one California Republican lawmaker is going viral as a result.
Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, was one of several Republican lawmakers removed or shifted from their committee assignments by the state house speaker last week, but DeMaio believes his removal from the budget committee after only two hearings was deliberate.
“You may have removed me from the budget committee, but you will not deter me from getting the truth out to the taxpayers in California about your wasteful spending and your money laundering of taxpayer money to far left-wing political groups,” DeMaio told Fox News Digital in an interview.
“We will expose you, and we will allow the public to decide whether that’s what they want to see happen with their money,” he added.
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A spokesman for Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas’ office told Fox News Digital the speaker “routinely address[es] committee needs throughout the year, and his goal is to always ensure members are in optimal roles to collaborate effectively and deliver for Californians.”
According to KCRA, Republicans have retained vice chair roles, and some Democrats were also booted off committees in the process.
Democrats have argued that the behavior of some Republicans in hearings is a distraction curated for social media and defeats the purpose of meetings.
The California flag and state capitol (Getty Images)
In recent weeks, DeMaio has gone viral for his questioning of California officials, particularly when it comes to the state’s budget. He prompted an answer from a state budget official revealing that $9.5 billion is being spent on MediCal for illegal immigrants, which is higher than a previous $6 billion projection.
“They were embarrassed. It made national news. People were appalled across the state of California so much money is going to illegal immigrants just for healthcare,” DeMaio said.
He also suggested the state enlist Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to help improve processes in the state.
DeMaio is also making the case that a “COVID-19 workplace outreach” program is being used to back left-leaning groups that do political work outside the scope of its namesake, according to the California Globe.
SKYROCKETING HEALTHCARE COSTS FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS SPARKS BORDER STATE OUTCRY
Crime has surged in California under Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
“In 2025, we are actually still spending $25 million in taxpayer money on a COVID-19 workplace education program. Isn’t that so 2020? This is completely unnecessary,” he said.
The scrutiny comes amid an ongoing debate about the Golden State’s overall financial health for the upcoming fiscal year as Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office argues his proposal is balanced, while Republicans believe it will run up a deficit.
“The budget I present to you today builds on a framework that balanced the books over two years instead of just one — an unprecedented effort to address the budget shortfall we faced. However, work remains to ensure California’s finances remain in order in the years to come,” Newsom said in a statement in January.
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Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego (CQ/Getty)
Despite the mix of praise and backlash, DeMaio believes it’s important to put a spotlight on the Golden State.
“The reason why all Americans should be carefully watching what’s going on in California is that the bad ideas coming to your state actually usually get their start in California,” DeMaio said.
“They use California as a petri dish for their far left-wing extremist ideas, and then they export these bad ideas to other states, and they claim that it’s successful out here.”
Tom Llamas will be the next anchor of “NBC Nightly News” after Lester Holt departs the role this summer.
The son of Cuban immigrants, Llamas, 45, will be the first Latino to anchor a weekday English language broadcast network evening newscast, a role that will make him one of the signature personalities of NBC News.
Llamas will remain anchor of the nightly program “Top Story,” which streams on NBC News Now at 7 p.m. Eastern. “Nightly” is fed to NBC stations live at 6:30 p.m.
Holt announced his plans to leave “Nightly” last week after a 10 year run. He will remain with NBC News as anchor of the true crime newsmagazine “Dateline.”
Llamas, a Miami native, was recruited to NBC News from ABC and had been rumored to be the “Nightly” heir apparent since he arrived.
Llamas started his journalism career as a 15-year-old intern at the local Telemundo station in Miami. After graduating from Loyola University New Orleans, he landed a job in 2000 as a production assistant at NBC News. He worked his way up as a correspondent for NBC’s Miami station and a local anchor for WNBC in New York.
Llamas jumped to ABC News in 2014, where he raised his profile covering the 2016 presidential campaign, and the following year was named Saturday anchor of “ABC World News.” He returned to NBC in 2021 and became anchor of “Top Story” in September of that year.
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