Founded | May 26, 1848 |
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Location |
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Coordinates | 38°53′03″N77°00′31″W / 38.88406°N 77.00859°W |
Key people |
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Affiliations | Democratic Party |
Website | democrats |
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the principal executive leadership board of the United States Democratic Party. According to the party charter, it has "general responsibility for the affairs of the Democratic Party between National Conventions", [1] and particularly coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well as works to establish a "party brand" and to formulate the party platform. [2] While it provides support for party candidates, it does not have direct authority over elected officials. [3]
The DNC was established on May 26, 1848, at that year's Democratic National Convention. [4] [5] The DNC's main counterpart is the Republican National Committee.
The DNC is responsible for articulating and promoting the Democratic platform and coordinating party organizational activity. In particular, it organizes and calls for the Democratic National Convention held every four years to nominate candidates for President and Vice President of the United States, and is subsequently responsible for the Presidential campaign. The DNC is more focused on campaign and organizational strategy than public policy. According to Boris Heersink, "political scientists have traditionally described the parties’ national committees as inconsequential but impartial service providers." [6] [7]
In presidential elections, it supervises the national convention and, both independently and in coordination with the presidential candidate, raises funds, commissions polls, and coordinates campaign strategy. [3] Following the selection of a party nominee, the public funding laws permit the national party to coordinate certain expenditures with the nominee, but additional funds are spent on general, party-building activities. [8] There are state committees in every state, as well as local committees in most cities, wards, and towns (and, in most states, counties).
When the president is a Democrat, the party generally works closely with the president and the White House largely controls the Committee.
The DNC is headed by a Chairperson, five Vice Chairpersons, a Treasurer, a Secretary, and a National Finance Chair, who are all elected by vote of members of the Democratic National Committee itself. [9] : 5
According to its charter, [1] the committee is further composed of:
All DNC members are superdelegates to the Democratic National Convention, and their role can affect the outcome over a close primary race only if no candidate receives a majority of pledged delegates. [10] These delegates, officially described as "unpledged party leader and elected official delegates," fall into three categories based on other positions they hold: [11]
The DNC establishes rules for the caucuses and primaries which choose delegates to the Democratic National Convention, but the caucuses and primaries themselves are most often run not by the DNC but instead by each individual state. Primary elections, in particular, are conducted by state governments according to their own laws. Political parties can choose whether to participate and accept the results of a state's primary election. [12]
The DNC convenes at least once a year. An Executive Committee of roughly 65 members determined by the DNC is responsible for the affairs of the party and meets at least quarterly. [13] In addition, a National Advisory Board exists for purposes of fundraising and advising the executive. The present chair is Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, U.S. Ambassador to Brazil.
In 2021, the former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party Jaime Harrison [14] was selected by President Joe Biden to chair the Democratic National Committee, and his nomination was approved by its members. [15] A new chair will be elected in the 2025 Democratic National Committee chairmanship election
Jaime Harrison | Chair | |
Gretchen Whitmer | Vice Chair, | |
Tammy Duckworth | Vice chair, U.S. senator from Illinois | |
Henry R. Muñoz III | Vice chair | |
Ken Martin | Vice Chair, President of the Association of State Democratic Committees, Chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party | |
Keisha Lance Bottoms | Vice chair of Civic Engagement and Voter Participation | |
Chris Korge | Finance chair [16] | |
Virginia McGregor | Treasurer [14] | |
Jason Rae | Secretary [17] |
Furthermore, the following non-voting officers execute administrative tasks within the DNC:
This is an inactive position.
The Deputy Chair of the Democratic National Committee was re-established by Tom Perez in February 2017 after his win in the 2017 DNC Chair race.
After a close victory over Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, Perez appointed Ellison as Deputy Chair in an attempt to lessen the divide in the Democratic Party after the contentious 2016 Democratic presidential primaries, which saw conflicts between supporters of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. [22] Perez was seen as being more in line with the Clinton wing, while Ellison was more in line with the Sanders wing. [23] The role's revival in 2017 has been described by critics as largely titular and ceremonial. [24]
On November 8, 2018, Ellison resigned from the position due to his win in the Minnesota Attorney General election. [25] The position remains unoccupied.
Officeholder | Term | State | |
---|---|---|---|
Evan Dobelle [26] [27] | 1980–1981 | Massachusetts | |
Alexis Herman [28] | 1989–1992 | Alabama | |
Ben Johnson [29] [30] | 2003–2005 | Maryland | |
Mike Honda | 2003–2005 | California | |
Susan Turnbull | 2003–2005 | Maryland | |
Keith Ellison | 2017–2018 [31] | Minnesota |
Officeholder | Term | State | |
---|---|---|---|
Charles J. Canda [32] [33] | 1875–1892 | New York | |
Robert B. Roosevelt [34] [35] | 1892–1896 | New York | |
William P. St. John [36] [37] | 1896–1897 | New York | |
James L. Norris [38] [39] | 1897–1900 | District of Columbia | |
Millard Fillmore Dunlap [39] [40] | 1900–1904 | Illinois | |
George Foster Peabody [41] [42] | 1904–1906 | New York | |
August Belmont [43] [44] | 1906–1908 | ||
William H. O'Brien [44] | 1908 | Indiana | |
Charles N. Haskell [45] [46] | 1908 | Oklahoma | |
Herman Ridder [46] [47] | 1908–1912 | New York | |
Rolla Wells [48] [49] | 1912–1916 | Missouri | |
Wilbur W. Marsh [50] [51] | 1916–1924 | Iowa | |
James W. Gerard [52] [53] | 1924–1932 | New York | |
Frank C. Walker [54] [55] | 1932–1934 | New York | |
Walter J. Cummings [56] [57] | 1934–1936 | Illinois | |
W. Forbes Morgan [57] | 1936–1937 | New Hampshire | |
Oliver A. Quayle Jr [58] [59] | 1937–1941 | District of Columbia | |
R. J. Reynolds Jr. [59] [60] | 1941–1942 | North Carolina | |
Edwin W. Pauley [61] [62] | 1942–1945 | California | |
George Killion [63] [64] | 1945–1947 | California | |
Joe L. Blythe [65] [66] | 1948–1949 | North Carolina | |
Mary C. Zirkle (acting) [67] [68] | 1949–1950 | Washington | |
Sidney Salomon Jr [68] [69] | 1950–1951 | Missouri | |
Roy J. Turner [70] [71] | 1951–1952 | Oklahoma | |
Dwight R. G. Palmer [72] [73] | 1952–1953 | New York | |
Stanley Woodward [74] [75] | 1953–1955 | Virginia | |
Matthew H. McCloskey [76] [77] | 1955–1962 | Pennsylvania | |
Richard MaGuire [78] [79] | 1962–1965 | Indiana | |
Clifton C. Carter (acting) [79] [80] | 1965–1966 | District of Columbia | |
John Criswell (acting) [81] [82] | 1966–1968 | Oklahoma | |
Robert E. Short (acting) [83] [84] | 1968–1969 | Minnesota | |
Patrick J. O'Connor (acting) [84] [85] | 1969–1970 | Minnesota | |
Robert S. Strauss [85] [86] | 1970–1972 | Texas | |
Donald Petrie [87] [88] | 1972 | ||
Howard Weingrow [88] [89] | 1972 | New York | |
C. Peter McColough [90] [91] | 1973–1974 | New York | |
Edward Bennett Williams [92] | 1974–1977 | District of Columbia | |
Joel McCleary [93] [94] | 1977–1978 | North Carolina | |
Evan Dobelle [95] [96] | 1978–1979 | Massachusetts | |
Peter G. Kelly [97] [98] | 1979–1981 | Connecticut | |
Charles Curry [98] [99] | 1981–1983 | Missouri | |
Paul G. Kirk [100] [101] | 1983–1985 | Massachusetts | |
Sharon Pratt Dixon [101] [102] | 1985–1989 | District of Columbia | |
Robert Farmer [103] [104] | 1989–1991 | ||
Robert T. Matsui [105] [106] | 1991–1995 | California | |
R. Scott Pastrick [107] | 1995–1997 | Maryland | |
Carol Pensky [108] [109] | 1997–1999 | ||
Andrew Tobias [109] | 1999–2017 | ||
Bill Derrough [110] [111] | 2017–2021 | New York | |
Virginia McGregor [112] | 2021–present | Pennsylvania |
The DNC has existed since 1848. [113] During the 1848 Democratic National Convention, a resolution was passed creating the Democratic National Committee, composed of thirty members, one person per state, chosen by the states' delegations, and chaired by Benjamin F. Hallett. [114]
In order to strengthen the national party organization, Franklin Roosevelt proposed in 1925 that the DNC should open a permanent headquarters in order to function "every day in every year" and exist on a "business-like financial basis." In 1929, John Raskob led the creation of the first permanent national headquarters for the DNC in Washington, DC. [115]
In the 1970s, the DNC had its head office, located in the Watergate complex at the time, burglarized by entities working for Richard Nixon's administration during the Watergate scandal.
Chinagate was an alleged effort by the People's Republic of China to influence domestic American politics prior to and during the Clinton administration. [116] In 2002, the Federal Election Commission fined the Democratic National Committee $115,000 for its part in fundraising violations in 1996. [117]
Cyber attacks and hacks were claimed by or attributed to various individual and groups such as:
On July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks released approximately 20,000 DNC emails. [127] Critics claimed that the Committee unequally favored Hillary Clinton and acted in support of her nomination while opposing the candidacy of her primary challenger Bernie Sanders. Donna Brazile corroborated these allegations in an excerpt of her book published by Politico in November 2017. [128] The leaked emails spanned sixteen months, terminating in May 2016. [129]
The WikiLeaks releases led to the resignations of Chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Communications Director Luis Miranda, Chief Financial Officer Brad Marshall and Chief Executive Amy Dacey. [130] After she resigned, Wasserman Schultz put out a statement about possible FBI assistance in investigating the hacking and leaks, saying that "the DNC was never contacted by the FBI or any other agency concerned about these intrusions." [131] During a Senate hearing in January 2017, James Comey testified that the FBI requested access to the DNC's servers, but its request was denied. He also testified that old versions of the Republican National Committee's servers were breached, but then-current databases were unaffected. [132]
The DNC subsequently filed a lawsuit in federal court against WikiLeaks and others alleging a conspiracy to influence the election. [133]
In American politics, a superdelegate is a delegate to a presidential nominating convention who is seated automatically.
The Vermont Progressive Party, formerly the Progressive Coalition and Independent Coalition, is a political party in the United States that is active in Vermont. It is the third-largest political party in Vermont behind the Democratic and Republican parties. As of 2023, the party has one member in the Vermont Senate and five members in the Vermont House of Representatives, as well as several more affiliated legislators who caucus with the Democratic Party.
The 1996 Democratic National Convention was held at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, from August 26 to August 29, 1996. President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore were nominated for reelection. It was the first national convention of either party to be held in Chicago since the riots of the 1968 Democratic convention, and until 2024, was the most recent presidential convention held in the city by either major party.
The 2008 Democratic National Convention was a quadrennial presidential nominating convention of the Democratic Party where it adopted its national platform and officially nominated its candidates for president and vice president. The convention was held in Denver, Colorado, from August 25 to 28, 2008, at the Pepsi Center. Senator Barack Obama from Illinois gave his acceptance speech on August 28 at Invesco Field in what the party called an "Open Convention". Denver last hosted the Democratic National Convention in 1908. Obama became the party's first nonwhite nominee, and nominee of African descent, for president. Senator Joe Biden from Delaware was nominated for vice president.
Donald L. Fowler was an American political scientist, professor, and political operative who served as National Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 1995 to 1997, alongside Chris Dodd as General Chairman during this same period.
The 1984 Democratic National Convention was held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California from July 16 to July 19, 1984, to select candidates for the 1984 United States presidential election. Former Vice President Walter Mondale was nominated for president and Representative Geraldine Ferraro of New York was nominated for vice president. Ferraro became the first woman to be nominated by either major party for the presidency or vice presidency. In another first, the 1984 Democratic Convention was chaired by the female governor of Kentucky, Martha Layne Collins. The Democratic National Committee Chairman at the time, Charles T. Manatt, led the convention.
Paul Grattan Kirk Jr. is an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Senator from Massachusetts from 2009 to 2010, having been appointed to fill the vacancy created by the death of Ted Kennedy. From 1985 to 1989, he chaired the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
Raymond "Ray" Buckley is an American politician from the state of New Hampshire who currently serves as chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party. Buckley previously served as President of the Association of State Democratic Chairs, and as a Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee. On December 21, 2016 he announced his candidacy to be Chair of the DNC in its chairmanship election. He withdrew his candidacy February 18, 2017.
The Maryland Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the state of Maryland, headquartered in Annapolis. The current acting state party chair is Kenneth Ulman. It is currently the dominant party in the state, controlling all but one of Maryland's eight U.S. House seats, both U.S. Senate seats, all statewide executive offices and supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature.
Peter Galbraith Kelly Sr. is an American lobbyist and political consultant. He received the 2015 Luminary Award in The World Affairs Council of CT.
The 2012 Democratic National Convention was a gathering, held from September 4–6, 2012, at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina, in which delegates of the Democratic Party nominated President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for reelection, in the 2012 United States national election.
The 2016 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention, held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 25 to 28, 2016. The convention gathered delegates of the Democratic Party, the majority of them elected through a preceding series of primaries and caucuses, to nominate a candidate for president and vice president in the 2016 United States presidential election. Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was chosen as the party's nominee for president by a 54% majority of delegates present at the convention roll call securing it over primary rival Senator Bernie Sanders, who received 46% of votes from delegates, and becoming the first female candidate to be formally nominated for president by a major political party in the United States. Her running mate, Senator Tim Kaine from Virginia, was confirmed by delegates as the party's nominee for vice president by acclamation.
Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select the 4,051 delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention held July 25–28 and determine the nominee for President in the 2016 United States presidential election. The elections took place within all fifty U.S. states, the District of Columbia, five U.S. territories, and Democrats Abroad and occurred between February 1 and June 14, 2016. Between 2008 and 2020, this was the only Democratic Party primary in which the nominee had never been nor had ever become President of the United States. This was the first Democratic primary to nominate a woman for President.
A total of ten debates occurred among candidates in the campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination for the president of the United States in the 2016 presidential election.
The 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak is a collection of Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails stolen by one or more hackers operating under the pseudonym "Guccifer 2.0" who are alleged to be Russian intelligence agency hackers, according to indictments carried out by the Mueller investigation. These emails were subsequently leaked by DCLeaks in June and July 2016 and by WikiLeaks on July 22, 2016, just before the 2016 Democratic National Convention. This collection included 19,252 emails and 8,034 attachments from the DNC, the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The leak includes emails from seven key DNC staff members dating from January 2015 to May 2016. On November 6, 2016, WikiLeaks released a second batch of DNC emails, adding 8,263 emails to its collection. The emails and documents showed that the Democratic Party's national committee favored Hillary Clinton over her rival Bernie Sanders in the primaries. These releases caused significant harm to the Clinton campaign, and have been cited as a potential contributing factor to her loss in the general election against Donald Trump.
The 2017 Democratic National Committee chairmanship election was held on February 25, 2017, at the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel in Atlanta to determine the next chairperson of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). It was the first contested DNC chair election since 1985.
The 2024 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention in which delegates of the United States Democratic Party voted on their party platform and ceremonially reported their vote to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris for president and her chosen running mate Governor Tim Walz for vice president in the 2024 presidential election. It was held from August 19 to 22, 2024, at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. Delegates virtually nominated Harris and Walz the first week of August. Harris is the first Black woman and first Indian woman to be the presidential nominee of a major political party in the United States, and the first Democratic presidential nominee from the Western United States.
From January 23 to June 8, 2024, presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select the delegates to the 2024 Democratic National Convention, to determine the party's nominee for president in the 2024 United States presidential election. The elections took place in all U.S. states, the District of Columbia, five U.S. territories, and Democrats Abroad.
Richard Maguire was an American lawyer and political fundraiser for the Democratic Party, particularly John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Maguire served as the treasurer of the Democratic National Committee from 1963 to 1965, where he developed a reputation as a secretive yet powerful figure.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Kamala Harris is set to speak at 10:45 pm ET tonight at the DNC, accepting the Democratic nomination for President.