(NewsNation) — With just over two weeks until the Democratic National Committee chooses new officers, candidates for chair knew the stakes had been raised. And for two candidates in particular, it was time to take a few jabs at one another.
The tone and delivery of answers at the Democratic National Committee’s second candidate forum for chair was markedly different from the first virtual one last week.
Taking place in person Thursday night in Detroit, Michigan, seven candidates fielded questions from moderators from Politico.
Fundamentally, the candidates share similar values like fighting for the working and middle classes, making sure that all voices are heard, and that all Americans know that Democrats are fighting for them.
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That made it difficult to discern how each would be different from the other. Not so anymore.
Notably, Midwestern-nice took a hit. The chair of the Wisconsin Democrats, Ben Wikler, and the chair of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, Ken Martin, both of whom have been successful organizers as state chairs, lobbed thinly veiled attacks at one another.
Martin criticized Wikler’s connections to Hollywood (he was a guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart) and billionaires, citing one in particular, Reid Hoffman, who at one point ran a controversial project related to voter data that some felt would weaken state parties.
Martin also provided a biographical contrast with Wikler who went to Harvard saying, “I didn’t go to an Ivy school. I went to a state school in Kansas … I rub elbows with working people in union halls, on picket lines, at civil rights marches and at protests.” Martin says he wants to give a voice to these people. “That’s what the next DNC will look like when I’m the next chairman,” he said.
Wikler countered Martin in part by pointing out that he has received endorsements from the four biggest public sector unions. (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), National Education Association (NEA), and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU))
Wikler also believes the DNC needs “a chair who comes from a purple state that was rigged to be red, not a blue state where [Democrats] won every election for years going back before the current chair [Martin].”
He argues his successes in flipping state races and helping Tammy Baldwin keep her U.S. Senate seat are harder fought and won because Republicans in Wisconsin had, until last year, gerrymandered the state to their benefit. Minnesota on the other hand is considered a reliably blue state. (Martin claims that’s due to his leadership.) Wikler wants to take his brand of organizing success nationally.
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Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley was emphatic in his belief that Democrats took their eye off the ball on economic messaging and stopped listening to Americans. He said, “They stayed home, or some of them hit the refresh button, because when we said to them, ‘defending democracy,’ what they heard was status quo, and they’re not happy with the status quo.”
O’Malley further injected urgency to the role when he noted, “the midterms coming up in two years are going to determine whether or not we have a republic,” and that Democrats “need a DNC chair for this wartime footing.” He says he’ll be that type of chair.
Of the seven candidates, only two are women and only one is a person of color. Dr. Quintessa Hathaway generated big cheers when she pointed out that “the most loyal constituency and voting block of the Democratic Party is African American women and African American men, their interests must be spoken to by not just the candidates that are present at this table, but us as a party.”
She also warned Republicans have a plan to “come into the urban centers of this country and compete with us for our voters.” Democrats, she noted, will have to counter those efforts, and educating voters is one way to do so.
Marianne Williamson, the spiritual wellness guru, took issue with how she felt the DNC treated her when she ran for president in this recent cycle. She wants to change the focus of the DNC and find ways to excite and inspire voters while being fair to everyone involved in the process. “I think you do the right thing, and that’s when you win in life.”
The biggest fireworks of the event though came unexpectedly from candidate Jason Paul. When moderators asked if President Joe Biden should have dropped out sooner, Paul directed his ire at the media saying, “Joe Biden did a good job as president … because the media didn’t inform the American people about what was going on, it became impossible for us to get any message out. And because we couldn’t get any message out, nobody knew what we did, and that’s why we lost the damn election.” The audience roared their support for Paul’s answer.
There will be two additional forums before the 448 members of the DNC vote for chair, as well as the other officer positions, on Feb. 1.
