The crowded, bitter and at times petty race to chair the Democratic National Committee is coming to a close. Whoever wins will likely have more power over the Democratic Party’s agenda than any of the committee’s most recent leaders.
There’s a deep sense among candidates that with there being no de facto party figurehead at the moment, there will be much less restraint for a new DNC chair to make meaningful change in what many feel is a broken party.
The contest to gain that influence, however, has been rocky. The two candidates who have emerged as frontrunners, Ben Wikler of Wisconsin and Ken Martin of Minnesota, largely lack major policy disagreements. Both have emphasized reaching the working class, wanting to end Citizens United — though without commitment to ban corporate PAC donations — and wanting to audit and reassign the party’s consultant contracts.