Former Maryland Governor Is First to Announce Bid for DNC Chair

‘We must connect our party with the most important place in America—the kitchen table of every family’s home,’ said Martin O’Malley.

The race to succeed Jaime Harrison as the new chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) began on Nov. 18 with the entrance of former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.

O’Malley, who was also mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007 and briefly ran in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary, said he would be resigning as head of the Social Security Administration to run for the position of DNC chair.

“We must connect our party with the most important place in America—the kitchen table of every family’s home. Jobs, opportunity, and economic security for all. Getting things done. Hope. A 50 state strategy. Now,” he wrote in a Nov. 18 post on X.

The New York Times was the first to report on O’Malley’s candidacy.

With Harrison’s anticipated exit from the lead DNC role, O’Malley is the first to step up to the plate and announce his candidacy. Other potential contenders include Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chair Ken Martin, Democratic Party leader Ben Wikler, ex-White House infrastructure czar Mitch Landrieu, and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel.

The four-year position must be filled by March 1, 2025, according to the party’s bylaws. With Vice President Kamala Harris’s loss in the 2024 presidential election, whoever takes the reigns of the DNC will be tasked with formulating a working vision for the party heading into the 2026 midterm elections and beyond.

That person will also preside over the party’s 2028 nominating process, which could give the new DNC chair a sizable impact on who runs as the party’s nominee in the next presidential election.

Harrison faced criticism for backing President Joe Biden as other party leaders started to question the viability of a reelection campaign, some before the president’s heavily scrutinized June debate performance against Republican Donald Trump—a central catalyst for Biden’s dropping out of the race.

Democrats have also begun pointing fingers for Harris’s loss, with moderates blaming the progressive wing for torpedoing her campaign with identity politics, and progressives blaming the party establishment for abandoning working-class messaging.

O’Malley previously ran to lead the DNC in 2016 before dropping out days later. In an interview with The New York Times, the former Maryland governor said the party is in need of “a lot of soul-searching” and should “focus on fixing the problem and not the blame.”

In reflecting on the success of past DNC chairs, O’Malley highlighted former Chair Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy, which directed party resources to all states nationwide instead of just the battlegrounds. Dean, who briefly ran in the 2004 Democratic presidential primary, attributed former President Barack Obama’s 2008 landslide victory to his 50-state strategy.

“I’m focused on listening and learning and collaborating with the 440 men and women that have to pick up the pieces in order to move our country forward,” O’Malley said, who was also the chair of the Democratic Governors Association from 2011 to 2013. The DNC has 440 voting members who will elect the new chair and other officers between Jan. 1, 2025, and March 1, 2025.

The Epoch Times contacted O’Malley for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.