Current Events > Jaime Harrison poised to replace Tom Perez as DNC chair

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https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/11/jaime-harrison-biden-dnc-chair/617086/

First, Joe Biden has to pick his Cabinet and his White House staff. But after that, theres only one name on leading Democrats list for Democratic National Committee chair: Jaime Harrison, who lost a race for U.S. Senate in South Carolina last week.

If hes named as chair, Harrison will inherit an organization in significantly better shape than it was when Tom Perez took over in 2017. Under Perez, the DNC has paid off its debt, rebuilt its infrastructure, and boosted employee morale. No one, though, expects that keeping Democrats organized will be easy, especially without a common political enemy in Donald Trump. The next chair will help decide the partys messaging ahead of the 2022 midterms and play a big role in the fight over which states will hold the first presidential primaries in 2024.

Harrison became nationally known this year during his run against Senator Lindsey Graham, as he set fundraising records and became a cause for Democrats far beyond his state. Graham ultimately won by a much-wider-than-expected 10-point margin, boosted by South Carolinas partisan lean and his role in confirming Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. But the goodwill that Harrison built up and the coming vacancy at the top of the DNCPerez confirmed to me yesterday that he wont be running for another termhas many Democrats thinking that Harrison is a perfect fit for the role. The timing just seems right, frankly, said Trav Robertson, a friend of Harrisons who is now in Harrisons old role as South Carolina Democratic Party chair.

More than just timing is involved. Harrison has the support of James Clyburn, his mentor and former boss, who is the House Democratic whip and whose endorsement during the primary campaign helped power Biden to the nomination. Yesterday, Clyburn pointed out to me that he had supported Harrison when he ran for DNC chair in 2017, and said, I think hes better prepared than he was when I supported him the first time.

Clyburn told me he hasnt mentioned the DNC-chair race to Biden, but all of Bidens friends know what I feel about it. A Biden spokesperson declined to comment.

Clyburns support, Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb said, means the train has left the station. Kleeb, whos from a very different part of the partyshes the political-committee chair of the Bernie Sandersaligned group Our Revolutiontold me shes happy to see that support go to Harrison. Like several others I spoke with, she pointed to Harrisons record as a state-party chair as giving her confidence in the kind of leader he would be. Shes just hoping that as the party elects other officers, members will promote regional and ideological diversity. Kleeb, for example, told me shes planning to run for vice chair of the DNC herself.

Perezs term finishes in February. Technically, the DNC chair is elected by the committees members. But when a Democrat is in the White House, the members tend to defer to the presidents choice. Biden has never been the party animal that, say, Bill Clinton was, but he is much more of an institutionalist than Barack Obama, who built his own political structure outside the DNC and oversaw eight years of atrophy and dysfunction within it.

Despite Perezs improvements, some Democrats are eager for more changes at the DNC. Several members of the Congressional Black Caucus clashed with Perez, mostly because they remained frustrated that hed pushed for reducing the role of superdelegates as part of the post-2016 reforms to the Democrats presidential-primary rules. Harrison, who is Black, has close relationships with many members of the caucus. He has a network of connections and donors coming off his Senate run, which gives him wider cachet. And his work as South Carolinas state-party chair will appeal to other state-party chairs, who consistently grumble that theyre being overlooked. For Harrison himself, the job makes sense: For all the interest and fundraising he generated nationally, the election results make clear that South Carolina isnt going to be a place for up-and-coming Democrats anytime soon.

The person with the most interest in how the DNC functions may be Vice Presidentelect Kamala Harris. Given all the speculation that Biden might not seek another term in 2024, she may be the politician whose future would be most obviously bound up in the long-term building and planning that the official party structure focuses on. But in the short term, the new DNC chair will be charged with supporting the Biden agenda.

The most obvious political fight looming for a new DNC chair is over the Iowa caucus. The combination of Iowa trending solidly Republican, the state partys failure to efficiently count votes in February, and the uncomfortable fact that the state that prides itself on picking presidents produced a distant fourth-place finish for the eventual Democratic nominee has top Democrats telling me theyre going to make it their mission to boot Iowa from its prominent spot on the calendar. Harrison, as a former state-party chair from an early-primary state (traditionally, South Carolina is the fourth contest, and the first in the South), may provide some security for the people hoping to keep things as they are.

One thing that goes unmentioned in this article is that his 2017 bid for this position failed to get much traction in part due to his previous work as a lobbyist for the coal industry.
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58751ff7e4b043ad97e607af

But now that he's spent tens of millions on a campaign that lost by double digits, things are looking up for his career prospects
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Antifar posted...

But now that he's spent tens of millions on a campaign that lost by double digits, things are looking up for his career prospects

This is the way

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Why tho lol. Losing to Lindsey Graham is not a good thing to have on one's resume lol.
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Antifar posted...

One thing that goes unmentioned in this article is that his 2017 bid for this position failed to get much traction in part due to his previous work as a lobbyist for the coal industry.

Nah I don't think that had much to do with it.

It is kinda dumb he's getting the job after doing nothing but jim clyburn has been trying to flex since Biden got elected so better get used to him running the party (have you heard he's the reason Biden is president?)

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Dems stay losing

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No, no, no. Stacey Abrams should be able to electric slide her way into that position.

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Taharqa_ posted...

No, no, no. Stacey Abrams should be able to electric slide her way into that position.

She wants to run for governor again

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In an ideal world Stacey Abrams would do it and work her magic, but eh

I don't know enough about South Carolina politics to know how successful Harrison was as the state party chair, so Iunno.

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I dont really get this, he got destroyed by Graham despite raising so much money. We need leadership that can win elections.

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KiwiTerraRizing posted...

I dont really get this, he got destroyed by Graham despite raising so much money. We need leadership that can win elections.

I mean the head of the DNC isn't really a "campaigner" position. It's not terribly visible. It's more of a fundraising/organizing thing.

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Doom_Art posted...

I mean the head of the DNC isn't really a "campaigner" position. It's not terribly visible. It's more of a fundraising/organizing thing.

This, party chairs tend to be more administration and leave the politics to elected officials.

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KiwiTerraRizing posted...

I dont really get this, he got destroyed by Graham despite raising so much money. We need leadership that can win elections.

Shouldn't you be 'visiting' the ps5 boards?
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bover_87 posted...

This, party chairs tend to be more administration and leave the politics to elected officials.

That said, this elevation of losing Democratic senate/congressional candidates is a weird trend.

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i thought jamie harrison was that bad ass simp manboy from the flo commercials?

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bover_87 posted...

This, party chairs tend to be more administration and leave the politics to elected officials.

DNC chair is instrumental in developing campaign strategy and funneling support to important races. See the difference between Howard Dean's 50 state strategy and whatever the hell Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was trying to do. It's an important role that helps get dems majorities in congress.
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lilORANG posted...

DNC chair is instrumental in developing campaign strategy and funneling support to important races. See the difference between Howard Dean's 50 state strategy and whatever the hell Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was trying to do. It's an important role that helps get dems majorities in congress.

But they sent $0 to Abby Broyles or Paulette Jordan, and the 3rd woman in Wyoming.
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Stacey Abrams is way over-qualified for DNC chair.

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I'm pretty disappointed. Harrison should've done what Beto & Abrams did and stayed in-state to promote Dems. SC is a R+6 state on cook PVI and has the demographics to flip, they just need a robust voter reg system. Harrison could've done a lot.

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basically we need good in-state dems in viable states to work like Abrams to register voters. I don't expect dems in like Wyoming to do this, but there's tons of potential in states with high indigenous & black populations. They could & should absolutely work at the South and the Dakotas. Even if short term prospects are grim they could do a LOT long term that saves the senate for Dems imo

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I mean, John Ashcroft once lost an election to a dead guy and then got appointed to AG, so this is pretty in line with American politics.

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That's a downgrade. I remember during the DNC chair race he was even more open to big money politics than Perez. Big respect to Harrison's race against Graham, but he isn't needed as the national party leader.
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They just love losing so goddamn much

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Zero_Destroyer posted...

I'm pretty disappointed. Harrison should've done what Beto & Abrams did and stayed in-state to promote Dems. SC is a R+6 state on cook PVI and has the demographics to flip, they just need a robust voter reg system. Harrison could've done a lot.

Well now he can so a lot for 50 states and 5 major territories.

Cause that knowledge like butter. You spread it around.
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Damn. Didnt see this coming.

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Antifar posted...

But now that he's spent tens of millions on a campaign that lost by double digits, things are looking up for his career prospects

I don't really blame him for this. I blame all of the people that funneled buttloads of money into his and McGrath's campaigns instead of ones that were actually contested. If you read /r/politics though you would see that the kind of people who dumped their money into their campaigns thought it was a done deal that they would replace Graham and McConnell.

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