Ben Wikler, leader of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, announced Sunday that he is running to be the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Speaking on CNN’s “Inside Politics” with host Manu Raju, Wikler said: “I’m running for chairman of the Democratic National Committee because we have to unite, we have to fight and we have to win to keep the Republican Party from tearing this apart .” to take apart country and rip off working people to enrich mega-billionaires.”
Other candidates in the DNC race so far include Martin O’Malley, former governor of Maryland, and Ken Martin, party chairman of Minnesota. James Skoufis, a senator from New York, is also in the mix.
Wikler told Raju he was confident in his ability to lead the national Democrats, even though Vice President Kamala Harris lost Wisconsin to Donald Trump last month.
“This is a purple, intense state,” he said. “And what it teaches you when you fight in a state like Wisconsin is how to organize everywhere in rural areas, in cities, in suburbs, in small towns, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, geography, generation and ideology. voters who may not pay attention to what Democrats have to say.
“We know we lose when voters get their information about Democrats from Republicans. So we must increase the intensity and pervasiveness of our struggle, and we must communicate directly with working people, no matter what they look like or where they are. They live with the idea that we are on their side and that the Republicans are trying to oust them,” he told Raju.
Wikler, who has led the Wisconsin Democrats since June 2019, also spoke to the New York Times about his qualifications and his vision for the job.
“The Democratic Party,” he said, “is now best served by leadership that has fought on the front lines in one of the most contentious states in the country and has demonstrated the ability to build an operation that exceeds expectations of what possibly shattered. .”
The DNC elections are scheduled for February 1. The current chairman is South Carolina Democrat Jaime Harrison, who is not running again.
