Democratic National Committee

Founded	May 26, 1848; 175 years ago (1848-05-26)
Location	430 South Capitol Street SE, Washington, D.C., U.S.
Key people	Jaime Harrison (Chair) Chris Korge (Finance chair) Jason Rae (Secretary)
Affiliations	Democratic Party
Website	democrats.org

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the principal committee of the United States Democratic Party. The committee 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".^[1] It organizes the Democratic National Convention held every four years to nominate candidates for President and Vice President of the United States and to formulate the party platform. While it provides support for party candidates, it does not have direct authority over elected officials.^[2] When a Democrat is president, the White House controls the Committee. According to Boris Heersink, "political scientists have traditionally described the parties’ national committees as inconsequential but impartial service providers."^[3][4]

Its chair is elected by the committee. It conducts fundraising to support its activities.^[2]

The DNC was established on May 26, 1848, at that year's Democratic National Convention.^[5][6] The DNC's main counterpart is the Republican National Committee.

Role and organization

The DNC is responsible for articulating and promoting the Democratic platform and coordinating party organizational activity. When the president is a Democrat, the party generally works closely with the president. 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. 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.^[7] There are state committees in every state, as well as local committees in most cities, wards, and towns (and, in most states, counties).

The chairperson of the DNC is elected by vote of members of the Democratic National Committee.^[8]: 5 The DNC is composed of the chairs and vice-chairs of each state Democratic Party's central committee, two hundred members apportioned among the states based on population and generally elected either on the ballot by primary voters or by the state Democratic Party committee, a number of elected officials serving in an ex officio capacity, and a variety of representatives of major Democratic Party constituencies.

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 invariably conducted by state governments according to their own laws. Political parties may choose to participate or not participate in a state's primary election, but no political party executives have any jurisdiction over the dates of primary elections, or how they are conducted.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[9] These delegates, officially described as "unpledged party leader and elected official delegates," fall into three categories based on other positions they hold:^[10]

• elected members of the Democratic National Committee,
• sitting Democratic governors and members of Congress, and
• distinguished party leaders, consisting of current and former presidents, vice presidents, congressional leaders, and DNC chairs, are all superdelegates for life.

Current Leadership

In 2021, Jaime Harrison was selected by President Joe Biden to Chair the Democratic National Committee, and his nomination was approved by its members.^[11]

• Chair: Jaime Harrison, former Chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party^[12]
• Executive Director: Sam Cornale, former Chief of Staff of the Democratic National Committee^[13]
• Deputy Executive Director: Roger Lau, former Campaign Manager for Elizabeth Warren for President^[14]
• Political Director: Alana Mounce, former Executive Director of the Nevada State Democratic Party
• Chief of Staff: Anatole Jenkins, former National Organizing Director for Kamala Harris For The People
• Vice Chair of Civic Engagement and Voter Participation: Keisha Lance Bottoms^[12]
• Vice Chairs:
  • Gretchen Whitmer, Governor of Michigan^[12]
  • Tammy Duckworth, U.S. Senator from Illinois^[12]
  • Ken Martin, Chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party^[12]
  • Vacant
• Treasurer: Virginia McGregor^[12]
• Secretary: Jason Rae^[15]
• Finance Chair: Chris Korge^[16]

In addition, a National Advisory Board exists for purposes of fundraising and advising the executive. The present chair is Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, former U.S. Ambassador to Portugal.

Chairs of the Democratic National Committee

List of Democratic National Committee Chairs

Officeholder		Term	State[17]
	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–present	South Carolina
Source:[18]

Deputy Chairs

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.^[19] Perez was seen as being more in line with the Clinton wing, while Ellison was more in line with the Sanders wing.^[20] The role's revival in 2017 has been described by critics as largely titular and ceremonial.^[21]

On November 8, 2018, Ellison resigned from the position due to his win in the Minnesota Attorney General election.^[22] The position remains unoccupied.

Officeholder		Term	State
	Evan Dobelle[23][24]	1980–1981	Massachusetts
	Alexis Herman[25]	1989–1992	Alabama
	Ben Johnson[26][27]	2003–2005	Maryland
	Mike Honda	2003–2005	California
	Susan Turnbull	2003–2005	Maryland
	Keith Ellison	2017–2018[28]	Minnesota

Treasurers of the Democratic National Committee

List of Democratic National Committee Treasurers

Officeholder		Term	State
	Charles J. Canda[29][30]	1875–1892	New York
	Robert B. Roosevelt[31][32]	1892–1896	New York
	William P. St. John[33][34]	1896–1897	New York
	James L. Norris[35][36]	1897–1900	District of Columbia
	Millard Fillmore Dunlap[36][37]	1900–1904	Illinois
	George Foster Peabody[38][39]	1904–1906	New York
	August Belmont[40][41]	1906–1908
	William H. O'Brien[41]	1908	Indiana
	Charles N. Haskell[42][43]	1908	Oklahoma
	Herman Ridder[43][44]	1908–1912	New York
	Rolla Wells[45][46]	1912–1916	Missouri
	Wilbur W. Marsh[47][48]	1916–1924	Iowa
	James W. Gerard[49][50]	1924–1932	New York
	Frank C. Walker[51][52]	1932–1934	New York
	Walter J. Cummings[53][54]	1934–1936	Illinois
	W. Forbes Morgan[54]	1936–1937	New Hampshire
	Oliver A. Quayle Jr[55][56]	1937–1941	District of Columbia
	R. J. Reynolds Jr.[56][57]	1941–1942	North Carolina
	Edwin W. Pauley[58][59]	1942–1945	California
	George Killion[60][61]	1945–1947	California
	Joe L. Blythe[62][63]	1948–1949	North Carolina
	Mary C. Zirkle (acting)[64][65]	1949–1950	Washington
	Sidney Salomon Jr[65][66]	1950–1951	Missouri
	Roy J. Turner[67][68]	1951–1952	Oklahoma
	Dwight R. G. Palmer[69][70]	1952–1953	New York
	Stanley Woodward[71][72]	1953–1955	Virginia
	Matthew H. McCloskey[73][74]	1955–1962	Pennsylvania
	Richard MaGuire[75][76]	1962–1965	Indiana
	Clifton C. Carter (acting)[76][77]	1965–1966	District of Columbia
	John Criswell (acting)[78][79]	1966–1968	Oklahoma
	Robert E. Short (acting)[80][81]	1968–1969	Minnesota
	Patrick J. O'Connor (acting)[81][82]	1969–1970	Minnesota
	Robert S. Strauss[82][83]	1970–1972	Texas
	Donald Petrie[84][85]	1972
	Howard Weingrow[85][86]	1972	New York
	C. Peter McColough[87][88]	1973–1974	New York
	Edward Bennett Williams[89]	1974–1977	District of Columbia
	Joel McCleary[90][91]	1977–1978	North Carolina
	Evan Dobelle[92][93]	1978–1979	Massachusetts
	Peter G. Kelly[94][95]	1979–1981	Connecticut
	Charles Curry[95][96]	1981–1983	Missouri
	Paul G. Kirk[97][98]	1983–1985	Massachusetts
	Sharon Pratt Dixon[98][99]	1985–1989	District of Columbia
	Robert Farmer[100][101]	1989–1991
	Robert T. Matsui[102][103]	1991–1995	California
	R. Scott Pastrick[104]	1995–1997	Maryland
	Carol Pensky[105][106]	1997–1999
	Andrew Tobias[106]	1999–2017
	Bill Derrough[107][108]	2017–2021	California
	Virginia McGregor[109]	2021–present	Virginia

Controversies

Watergate

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

Chinagate was an alleged effort by the People's Republic of China to influence domestic American politics prior to and during the Clinton administration.^[110] In 2002, the Federal Election Commission fined the Democratic National Committee $115,000 for its part in fundraising violations in 1996.^[111]

Cyber attacks

Cyber attacks and hacks were claimed by or attributed to various individual and groups such as:

• According to committee officials and security experts, two competing Russian intelligence services were discovered on DNC computer networks. One intelligence service achieved infiltration beginning in the summer of 2015 and the other service breached and roamed the network beginning in April 2016. The two groups accessed emails, chats, and research on an opposing presidential candidate. They were expelled from the DNC system in June 2016.^{[112][113][114]}
• The hacker Guccifer 2.0 claimed that he hacked into the Democratic National Committee computer network and then leaked its emails to the newspaper The Hill.^[115][116] During a CNN interview with Jake Tapper, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, cited experts saying that the DNC emails were leaked by the Russians but did not name the experts.^[117][118] The press and cybersecurity firms discredited the Guccifer 2.0 claim, as investigators now believe Guccifer 2.0 was an agent of the G.R.U., Russia's military intelligence service.^{[112][114][119][120]}

2016 email leak

On July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks released approximately 20,000 DNC emails.^[121] 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.^[122] The leaked emails spanned sixteen months, terminating in May 2016.^[123]

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.^[124] 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."^[125] 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.^[126]

The DNC subsequently filed a lawsuit in federal court against WikiLeaks and others alleging a conspiracy to influence the election.^[127]

History

The DNC has existed since 1848.^[128] 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.^[129]

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.^[130]