List of chairs of the Democratic National Committee

Chair of the Democratic National Committee
Incumbent Ken Martin since February 1, 2025
Appointer	Democratic National Committee
Term length	4 years; renewable
Inaugural holder	Benjamin F. Hallett
Formation	1848 (177 years ago)
Website	Official website

The chair of the Democratic National Committee is the party chair and de-jure leader of the Democratic Party. ^[1]

The chair manages the day-to-day affairs and operations of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), prepares and conducts the quadrennial Democratic National Convention, and promotes the Democratic "party brand" and political platform, as well as assists in party fundraising and election strategy. ^[2] The DNC chair also serves as a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention and can affect the outcome over a close primary race only if no candidate receives a majority of pledged delegates. ^[3]

The current officeholder is Ken Martin of Minnesota, who took office on February 1, 2025. ^{[4] [5]}

Chairs of the Democratic National Committee

List of Democratic National Committee chairs

Officeholder		Term	State [6]
	Benjamin Hallett	1848–1852	Massachusetts
	Robert McLane	1852–1856	Maryland
	David Smalley	1856–1860	Vermont
	August Belmont	1860–1872	New York
	Augustus Schell	1872–1876	New York
	Abram Hewitt	1876–1877	New York
	William Barnum	1877–1889	Connecticut
	Calvin Brice	1889–1892	Ohio
	William Harrity	1892–1896	Pennsylvania
	James Jones	1896–1904	Arkansas
	Thomas Taggart	1904–1908	Indiana
	Norman Mack	1908–1912	New York
	William McCombs	1912–1916	New York
	Vance McCormick	1916–1919	Pennsylvania
	Homer Cummings	1919–1920	Connecticut
	George White	1920–1921	Ohio
	Cordell Hull	1921–1924	Tennessee
	Clem Shaver	1924–1928	West Virginia
	John Raskob	1928–1932	New York
	James Farley	1932–1940	New York
	Edward Flynn	1940–1943	New York
	Frank Walker	1943–1944	Pennsylvania
	Robert Hannegan	1944–1947	Missouri
	Howard McGrath	1947–1949	Rhode Island
	William Boyle	1949–1951	Missouri
	Frank McKinney	1951–1952	Indiana
	Stephen Mitchell	1952–1955	Illinois
	Paul Butler	1955–1960	Indiana
	Scoop Jackson	1960–1961	Washington
	John Bailey	1961–1968	Connecticut
	Larry O'Brien	1968–1969	Massachusetts
	Fred Harris	1969–1970	Oklahoma
	Larry O'Brien	1970–1972	Massachusetts
	Jean Westwood	1972	Utah
	Bob Strauss	1972–1977	Texas
	Kenneth Curtis	1977–1978	Maine
	John White	1978–1981	Texas
	Charles Manatt	1981–1985	California
	Paul Kirk	1985–1989	Massachusetts
	Ron Brown	1989–1993	New York
	David Wilhelm	1993–1994	Ohio
	Debra DeLee	1994–1995	Massachusetts
	Chris Dodd (General Chair)	1995–1997	Connecticut
	Don Fowler (National Chair)		South Carolina
	Roy Romer (General Chair)	1997–1999	Colorado
	Steve Grossman (National Chair)		Massachusetts
	Ed Rendell (General Chair)	1999–2001	Pennsylvania
	Joe Andrew (National Chair)		Indiana
	Terry McAuliffe	2001–2005	Virginia
	Howard Dean	2005–2009	Vermont
	Tim Kaine	2009–2011	Virginia
	Donna Brazile (Acting)	2011	Louisiana
	Debbie Wasserman Schultz	2011–2016	Florida
	Donna Brazile (Acting)	2016–2017	Louisiana
	Tom Perez	2017–2021	Maryland
	Jaime Harrison	2021–2025	South Carolina
	Ken Martin	2025–present	Minnesota
Source: [7]

See also

• Democratic National Committee
• Democratic National Convention
• History of the Democratic Party (United States)

References

1. Cornelius P. Cotter, and Bernard C. Hennessy, eds. Politics without Power: The National Party Committees (1964) excerpt Archived 2021-10-14 at the Wayback Machine .
2. Heersink, Boris (2021). "Examining Democratic and Republican National Committee Party Branding Activity, 1953–2012" . Perspectives on Politics. 21: 142–159. doi:10.1017/S1537592721000025. ISSN   1537-5927. S2CID   233646493. Archived from the original on March 24, 2021. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
3. "Democrats strip superdelegates of power and reform caucuses in 'historic' move". NBC News . August 25, 2018. Archived from the original on August 25, 2018. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
4. Kamisar, Ben (February 1, 2025). "Ken Martin wins election as the next chair of the Democratic National Committee". NBC News . Archived from the original on February 21, 2025. Retrieved February 21, 2025.
5. "Democratic National Committee". Ballotpedia . Retrieved March 9, 2025.
6. Lawrence Kestenbaum. "A Database of Historic Cemeteries". The Political Graveyard web site. Archived from the original on December 6, 2020. Retrieved December 29, 2010.
7. Schemmel, B. "Political parties". United States Government departments and offices, etc. Rulers. Archived from the original on May 10, 2017. Retrieved March 9, 2025.

Further reading

• Cotter, Cornelius P., and Bernard C. Hennessy, eds. (1964). Politics Without Power: The National Party Committees (excerpt).
• Heersink, Boris (2023). National Party Organizations and Party Brands in American Politics: The Democratic and Republican National Committees, 1912–2016 . Oxford University Press. doi : 10.1093/oso/9780197695104.001.0001. ISBN   978-0-19-769514-2.
• Heersink, Boris (March 2021). "Examining Democratic and Republican National Committee Party Branding Activity, 1953–2012". Perspectives on Politics21:1: Special Section: Las Américas. 1–18.
• Heersink, Boris. "Party Brands and the Democratic and Republican National Committees, 1952–1976". Studies in American Political Development 32.1 (2018): 79–102.