Minnesota DFL's Ken Martin elected national Democratic Party chair on first ballot

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD. - Democratic Party leaders from across the nation on Saturday elected Minnesota DFL Chair Ken Martin to lead the Democratic National Committee, bringing an end to a three-month battle over who will take the party into the future after major losses in 2024.

Martin won the DNC chair race on the first ballot, garnering support from 246.5 of the 448 DNC members, or 55% of the vote. A majority vote was needed to win.

Martin cast himself as a friend of labor and the son of a single mother who grew up in poverty and can bring the working class back into the party in both red and blue states. He acknowledged that Democrats got "punched in the mouth in November," but vowed they would "get off the mat [and] get back in this fight" if they elected him chair.

"A lot of people in this country right now are going to need us to walk and chew gum at the same time, meaning we're going to have to fight the extremes of Donald Trump, while we make a sharp case to families in both red states and blue states about why they should trust us with their votes," Martin told supporters ahead of the vote.

[More: Gov. Tim Walz endorses Richard Carlbom as next DFL Party chair.]

Martin was locked into an eight-person race for chair with two other frontrunners, Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley. Insiders said Martin was the favorite of the three to succeed outgoing DNC Chair Jamie Harrison, even though Wikler had lined up support from prominent elected leaders such as House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Ahead of the vote, candidates Marianne Williamson and Nate Snyder announced they were ending their chair bids to back Martin.

After he was elected, Martin said he plans to kick off the "post-election review process" on his first day in office to figure out what went wrong after President Donald Trump's decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in November.

Now, he said, the focus will be on aggressively taking on Trump.

"We're taking the gloves off," Martin told reporters. "I've always viewed my role as the chair of the Democratic Party to take the low road, so my candidates and elected officials can take the high road, meaning I'm going to throw a punch.

"So Donald Trump, Republican Party, this is a new DNC. We are not going to sit back and not take you on when you fail the American people."

DFL politicos descended on Washington, D.C., ahead of the vote, which took place at the nearby Gaylord National Resort Convention Center in National Harbor, Md.

Minnesota Attorney General (and former DNC deputy chair) Keith Ellison, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter attended Saturday's meeting. So did DNC member Ron Harris, who was most recently state campaign director for the Harris-Walz campaign.

Flanagan joined Martin's supporters on the stage to introduce him to DNC members before the vote, and outlined the DFL Party's accomplishments under his leadership.

Martin, she said, "is incredibly dedicated to building this party, and because he did that in Minnesota, we won paid family and medical leave, child tax credit," she said, adding that he protected access to abortion and reproductive rights.

"Let me tell you, that this is the kind of work that we will see all across the country when Ken Martin is our party chair," Flanagan said.

Though the majority of voting DNC members backed Martin, at least one DNC voter said his decision to back O'Malley over Martin was largely because of the DFL Party's endorsement of a non-resident in a safely Democratic legislative district.

David Roth, a DNC national committeeman from Idaho, said Martin should have taken responsibility for Curtis Johnson, the DFL candidate who won election to a Roseville-area House seat but had to resign after a judge ruled he didn't meet the state's residency requirement. Johnson's resignation has contributed to a partisan standoff in the Minnesota House.

"By all accounts, literally every single person has said they could have put any Democrat in that seat and won. And they put someone who didn't live there," Roth said. "When you're the state party chair, the buck stops there."

Ellison navigated a tight DNC chair race in 2017 against Tom Perez, who ultimately won with the support of then-Vice President Joe Biden. Perez, who had been labor secretary under President Barack Obama, served as DNC chair until 2021.

Ellison said he hoped major political figures like Obama and Biden would stay out of this year's race, which they ultimately did. Them putting their fingers on the scale impacted my chances," Ellison said Friday.

Omar said she was whipping votes on Martin's behalf and that the first two weeks of Trump's second administration marked the beginning of Democratic resistance.

"We know that [Martin] will make sure that the needs and priorities of the working people are going to be front and center, and we know that he will be a strong advocate for Democrats in making sure that we are all doing what we need to do, not just to win, but to be the party of the people," Omar said.

Over the past decade, Martin helped raise $210 million for the Minnesota DFL and landed key Democratic wins, including a trifecta at the State Capitol — the governorship and both legislative houses — in 2022.

Martin will remain as DFL chair until the election for a new state party chair, set for March 29.