Ken Martin, longtime head of Minnesota DFL Party and EPHS grad, announces candidacy for DNC chair

Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chair Ken Martin, whose party hasn’t lost a statewide race since his tenure began in 2011, announced on Tuesday that he’s running to lead the Democratic National Committee.

Martin, who graduated from Eden Prairie High School in 1991, has also served as a DNC vice chair since 2017.

Martin, whose early political career included work on the iconic campaign of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, is a strong fundraiser who inherited the DFL Party when it lost both legislative chambers in 2010 and carried $725,000 in debt. 

The next DNC chair will become the face of the party as President Joe Biden leaves the stage, while charting Democrats’ path forward and reimagining its message after their electoral defeat earlier this month.

Democrats are currently split about how to win over voters in the future, with some saying the party needs to abandon some progressives messaging on social issues, while others say Vice President Kamala Harris’ more corporate-friendly and hawkish foreign policy campaign failed to turn out enough Democrats.

But the party’s problems seem to transcend ideological positioning. As Democrats have come to win over college-educated voters, Republicans, and especially Donald Trump, have won an increasing share of working class voters — including Hispanics who voted for Trump in greater numbers than any GOP presidential candidate since 2004. 

Martin, who did not immediately respond to the Reformer’s request for comment, told the New York Times that Democrats have a “huge branding problem,” as the majority of Americans see the Republican Party as the party of the working class and the Democratic Party as one that represents elites.

The Times reported that Martin entered the DNC chair race with endorsements from 83 DNC members, which is more than any other candidate to date.

“If you’re looking for a creature of D.C., that’s not me,” Martin said in a video announcing his candidacy. “But I do know how the DNC works and how it isn’t working. I know how to listen to the voters, to those who feel cast aside by Democrats and to the people working hard within our party who have great ideas.”

Current DNC Chairman Jamie Harrison is not seeking a second term, and the election for DNC chair is expected to take place early next year.

Martin has a long resume in Democratic politics, including advising presidential campaigns in Minnesota and the successful 2008 effort to pass the Legacy Amendment, which has raised billions for clean water and the arts.

While he can boast the long statewide winning streak as DFL chair, Martin also managed the campaign of the last Democrat to lose a statewide race, Mike Hatch, who lost his cool in the final days of the 2006 campaign and was narrowly beaten by then-Gov. Tim Pawlenty. 

Martin was instrumental in establishing the constellation of outside groups — and the money to fund them — that have given the party’s candidates massive fundraising advantages in the past 15 years.

Martin has at times found himself at odds with left-wing Minnesota Democrats and Democratic Socialists for what he charged was their extreme messaging.

During the height of the defund the police movement in Minneapolis, Martin criticized the local Minneapolis DFL chair for calling the burning of Minneapolis’ Third Precinct a “genuine revolutionary movement” and an “act of pure righteousness.”

“(The Minneapolis DFL chair’s) disturbing remarks do not speak for our party. If you want to know where DFLers stand, look to the criminal justice reforms our party enacted last year and look to the fact we successfully continued the fight for reform this year. DFLers are not anti-law enforcement; we are pro-public safety,” Martin wrote in a Reformer column.

Shortly after the Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the Twin Cities chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America shared a statement of solidarity with Palestine, saying that it was “resolved to proclaim ‘From the River, to the Sea, Palestine will be free!’ today and until liberation.”

In a tweet, Martin said, “‘From the river to the sea’ is a chant used by extremists to support the destruction of Israel. It is appalling to embrace this rhetoric in this statement, which also doesn’t even acknowledge the slaughter of Israeli & American civilians. This is disgusting.”

Minnesota Democrats currently hold all statewide offices, but the state wasn’t immune from the national red wave that swept across the country earlier this month. The DFL lost its trifecta after Republicans flipped three key Minnesota House seats, resulting in a tied 67-67 split between House Republicans and Democrats.

“Politics is not a sport. We can’t pat ourselves on the back and then head home to lick our wounds for the next four years, because when the Trump agenda fails Americans, as it most certainly will, they need to know that we have their back,” Martin said in his campaign video.

Editor’s note: The Minnesota Reformer is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to keeping Minnesotans informed and unearthing stories other outlets can’t or won’t tell. 

This story was written by Michelle Griffith, who covers Minnesota politics and policy for the Reformer, focusing on marginalized communities. It originally appeared in the Minnesota Reformer on Nov. 19.