Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor who for the last year has served as commissioner of the Social Security Administration, on Monday became the first announced candidate for chair of the Democratic National Committee.
The entrance of Mr. O’Malley, 61, kicks off a race that is expected to have several candidates running to lead a party in turmoil after this year’s elections. Without control of the White House or either chamber of Congress in 2025, Democrats are in a defensive crouch, aiming to protect themselves and their constituents from a second Trump administration bent on right-wing policymaking and vengeance.
While the D.N.C. chair is considered a position of national prominence, the contest to succeed Jaime Harrison in that role is a highly insular version of a student council election. Only the 447 committee members get a vote in the election, which is expected to take place in early 2025, and relationships often matter more than anything else. Mr. O’Malley said that he was entering the race with three endorsements from D.N.C. members and had been in conversations with others in recent days. He resigned from his Social Security Administration post on Monday, effective Nov. 29.
Mr. O’Malley, who led the Democratic Governors Association after winning re-election in Maryland in 2010 and ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, described himself in an interview on Sunday night as a “proven operational leader and a turnaround manager.”
“We face enormous challenges and a lot of soul-searching,” he said. “We need to focus on fixing the problem and not the blame.”
Here’s his conversation with The New York Times, lightly edited and condensed:
You said there should be an “after-action report” about what happened in the election this year. Who should produce that?
I think that’s the job of the D.N.C., to be honest with one another. One of the jobs for the next chair of the D.N.C. is to make sure that’s done — that it’s done thoroughly, that it’s based on truth, well researched and based on the facts and the numbers. Because until we do that, it’s going to be hard to forge the consensus for how we fix the problem.
Why do you think Kamala Harris lost?
I believe that the American people’s eyes were taken off the ball and by the politics of fear. And I believe that in order for us to rebuild and win elections, we have to be entirely focused on winning elections. Because if we don’t win, everybody loses.
We have to engage in the economic arguments as to why the choices that we are making are better for Americans all over the country.
Do you think President Biden should not have run for re-election, and instead allowed a competitive primary to take place?
I’m not going to second-guess the past. I’m focused on the future. And I’m running for chair of the D.N.C. because I believe I can lead us out of this darkness and into a better future where we do a better job of connecting with the American people around the economic reality. I can’t fix yesterday. I’m not running to fix yesterday or second-guess yesterday.
How would you grade Jaime Harrison and how he has done as the party’s chair?
I’m not looking back. I’m looking forward. Jaime Harrison did his duty and he did it with commitment and dedication and is a patriot.
Who is the best D.N.C. chair that you can recall?
I believe that Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy was something very valuable, important and that we should learn from and replicate. And I also believe that Ron Brown’s commitment, his work ethic, his ability to bring people together and pick us up off the mat, is also a shining example.
Should New Hampshire go first in the presidential nominating calendar, or do you support keeping the order set by President Biden, which had South Carolina as the party’s first primary state?
There needs to be a process for that. And that’s what the Rules Committee is going to come together to consider.
But what do you think should happen?
I’m focused on listening and learning and collaborating with the 440 men and women that have to pick up the pieces in order to move our country forward.
You said you’re focused on the future. The calendar is a big question in the future that you do not seem to have an answer to.
It is a question for the future, and it’s a question that the party is going to have to collaboratively address.
What should the party do to win back Latino voters who backed Trump and Republicans in recent elections?
When I ran for re-election as governor of Maryland, it was coming off a recession. There was a lot of anxiety. But we never hesitated to engage on the economic issues, talked about how the things we were doing were improving people’s conditions, families, their ability to send their kids to college. That’s what we need to do with every group.
We need to engage on channels that perhaps we haven’t engaged on before. And a lot of people don’t watch TV anymore. But a lot of people are on WhatsApp. And that’s particularly true in a lot of communities with new immigrants.
How do you feel now about how Baltimore was portrayed on “The Wire,” years after it went off the air?
Gosh, you’re not asking that one.
I am asking that one.
I think we’re done.
You’re not going to answer that question?
No. And I’m not the guy in “The Wire.”
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