Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia, was elected vice chair of the Democratic National Committee on Saturday, a role that gives him a front-row seat as the party tries to course-correct after widespread losses in November.
Ken Martin, a longtime Democratic operative and Minnesota state party leader who served as a vice chair of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, was elected chair.
Kenyatta will join fellow elected vice chairs David Hogg, a gun-control activist and survivor of the Parkland school shooting, and Artie Blanco, a current DNC member from Nevada. The DNC’s eight-person leadership team will include two Pennsylvanians. Virginia McGregor, a longtime Democratic fundraiser, was reelected Treasurer.
Polling shows Americans think more negatively about the Democratic Party than the Republican Party and see the GOP as more in sync with the country’s mood. A recent Quinnipiac Poll found a 57% unfavorable rating for Democrats, the highest that poll has recorded for the party since 2008. And the party has struggled to respond to a deluge of bold and chaotic actions taken by Trump in his first two weeks in office.
Kenyatta, who represents North Philadelphia, takes on the role after losing his bid for auditor general this fall.
“There are folks who have written obituaries about the Democratic Party but I think what you saw in National Harbor wasn’t a funeral, it was a revival,” Kenyatta said of the party meeting.
Martin, the incoming chair, promised a more targeted rebuttal to Trump’s administration and its actions but declined to discuss specific actions the party would take until a post-election review takes place.
Kenyatta said the leadership committee’s focus would be threefold: focus on local elections, including an upcoming Pittsburgh special election; connect politics to people by sharing personal stories of those affected by President Donald Trump’s administration, and grow the party.
Democrats are most successful when they can show how Republican actions affect Americans Kenyatta said, noting the impacts felt when Trump last week froze federal grant funding and imperiled public programs before rescinding the order after a day of chaos.
“I’m not gonna spend the next four (expletive) years apologizing for being a Democrat, or tacitly accepting the future of this party as one not positioned to fight back in this moment.”
But Kenyatta also said the party’s response to Trump has to look different than eight years ago. “Resistance 1.0 was about Donald Trump, his 2 a.m. tweets, his personality flaws,” Kenyatta said. “In this moment people are talking about themselves, their families, their loved ones. This party is gonna be talking about people and how we make lives better for people.”
