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, on Dec. 12, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Fox News - Paul Steinhauser)
In 2020, Martin called Trump a "traitor" who should be tried for treason.
"[Donald Trump] should be immediately impeached and then put on trial for treason," Martin wrote on June 29, 2020, citing an anonymously sourced news story. "His actions led to the deaths of American soldiers. He is a traitor to our nation and all those who have served."
He topped Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler by over 100 votes among the 428 DNC members who cast ballots as they gathered for the party's annual winter meeting, which this year was held at National Harbor in Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C.
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, was a distant third in the voting.
Among the longshot candidates were Faiz Shakir, who ran the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Marianne Williamson, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2020 and 2024 Democratic presidential nominations. Williamson endorsed Martin on Saturday, ahead of the vote.
The eight candidates in the race were vying to succeed DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, who decided against seeking a second straight four-year term steering the national party committee.
With no clear leader in the party, the next DNC chair could 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.
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)
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.
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The chair election took place as a new national poll spelled 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.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democrats-elect-new-chair-party-aims-rebound-following-major-2024-election-setbacks