DNC Officers' Election & An Update from the Future Forum in Baltimore
This week and next week we’ll be posting updates on the Democratic National Committee Officers’ elections. Why so much on the DNC? To be clear, Diversity Matters is not a single-party initiative - we will support any political leader who upholds our core principles – independent, Libertarian, Green Party, maybe even Republican (more on that in a future post). We believe in pushing for diversity not only in public office, but also within political parties. This month we are focused on the DNC because we believe we have an immediate opportunity to push a major political party to look beyond the traditional candidates, and be accountable to a more diverse base. The Officers’ Election will be held on February 25.
On Saturday, February 11, we participated in the DNC Future Forum in Baltimore. We had a chance to hear from all the candidates and meet with several of them to discuss our principles. Several candidates invited us to follow up with them, and we will be doing so - stay tuned for updates on our interviews with the candidates!
But in this post, we want to make a few comments on process. The DNC states on its elections web page that this is “the most open and transparent officer election ever”- and it certainly was a much wilder day than we expected! With ten candidates for Chair, nine candidates for Vice Chair, and no clear front runner, we entered a packed room at the Baltimore Convention Center and a forum where candidates made no bones about their criticisms of the DNC itself. Several candidates called for more openness, more transparency, public budgets, public meeting agendas, and clear job descriptions for the Vice Chairs. No matter who wins, we are very likely to see a transformed DNC. We encourage everyone to take the DNC at its word and weigh in directly with your state officers via this web link to let them know you expect future candidates for office to endorse, and be accountable to, the principles in the Diversity Declaration!