Democratic National Committee

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the principal executive leadership board of the United States Democratic Party. According to the party charter, it has "general responsibility for the affairs of the Democratic Party between National Conventions",^[1] and particularly 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" and to formulate the party platform.^[2] While it provides support for party candidates, it does not have direct authority over elected officials.^[3]

Quick Facts Founded, Location ...

Democratic National Committee

Headquarters (2024)
Founded	May 26, 1848; 176 years ago (1848-05-26)
Location	430 South Capitol Street SE, Washington, D.C., U.S.
Coordinates	38.88406°N 77.00859°W / 38.88406; -77.00859
Key people	Jaime Harrison (chair) Chris Korge (finance chair) Jason Rae (secretary)
Affiliations	Democratic Party
Website	democrats.org

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The DNC was established on May 26, 1848, at that year's Democratic National Convention.^[4][5] The DNC's main counterpart is the Republican National Committee.

The DNC is responsible for articulating and promoting the Democratic platform and coordinating party organizational activity. In particular, it organizes and calls for the Democratic National Convention held every four years to nominate candidates for President and Vice President of the United States, and is subsequently responsible for the Presidential campaign. The DNC is more focused on campaign and organizational strategy than public policy. According to Boris Heersink, "political scientists have traditionally described the parties' national committees as inconsequential but impartial service providers."^[6][7]

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.^[3] 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.^[8] There are state committees in every state, as well as local committees in most cities, wards, and towns (and, in most states, counties).

When the president is a Democrat, the party generally works closely with the president and the White House largely controls the committee.

The DNC is headed by a chairperson, five Vice Chairpersons, a Treasurer, a Secretary, and a National Finance Chair, who are all elected by vote of members of the Democratic National Committee itself.^[9]: 5

According to its charter,^[1] the committee is further composed of:

1. two representatives (including the chairperson) of each State Committee or US territory
2. 200 additional members apportioned to the states according to their population size (minimum two per state), elected either on the ballot by primary voters or by the State Committee or Caucus
3. two additional members per US territory, selected by their Democratic parties
4. the Democratic Leaders in the US Senate and House of Representatives
5. three Democratic governors (including the Chairperson of the Democratic Governors Association), mayors (including the Chairperson of the Democratic Mayors Association), county officials (including the Chairperson of the National Democratic County Officials), state legislators (including the Chairperson of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee), and municipal officials (including the Chairperson of the Democratic Municipal Officials), respectively
6. three representatives (including the Presidents) of the Young Democrats of America and the National Federation of Democratic Women, respectively
7. two representatives (including the chairpersons) of the College Democrats, the Democratic State Treasurers Association, the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association, the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, the Democratic Attorneys General Association, the National Democratic Ethnic Coordinating Committee, the National Democratic Seniors Coordinating Council, and the High School Democrats of America, respectively
8. eight representatives of the Democrats Abroad (including the chairperson), who each have half a vote
9. up to 75 additional members elected by the committee.

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.^[10] These delegates, officially described as "unpledged party leader and elected official delegates," fall into three categories based on other positions they hold:^[11]

• 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.

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 conducted by state governments according to their own laws. Political parties can choose whether to participate and accept the results of a state's primary election.^[12]

The DNC convenes at least once a year. An Executive Committee of roughly 65 members determined by the DNC is responsible for the affairs of the party and meets at least quarterly.^[13] In addition, a National Advisory Board exists for purposes of fundraising and advising the executive. The present chair is Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, U.S. Ambassador to Brazil.

Current leadership

In 2021, the former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party Jaime Harrison^[14] was selected by President Joe Biden to chair the Democratic National Committee, and his nomination was approved by its members.^[15] A new chair will be elected in the 2025 Democratic National Committee chairmanship election

	Jaime Harrison	Chair
	Gretchen Whitmer	Vice Chair, Governor of Michigan
	Tammy Duckworth	Vice chair, U.S. senator from Illinois
	Henry R. Muñoz III	Vice chair
	Ken Martin	Vice Chair, President of the Association of State Democratic Committees, Chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
	Keisha Lance Bottoms	Vice chair of Civic Engagement and Voter Participation
	Chris Korge	Finance chair[16]
	Virginia McGregor	Treasurer[14]
	Jason Rae	Secretary[17]

Furthermore, the following non-voting officers execute administrative tasks within the DNC:

• Executive Director: Sam Cornale, former Chief of Staff of the Democratic National Committee^[18]
• Deputy Executive Director: Roger Lau, former Campaign Manager for Elizabeth Warren for President^[19]
• 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

This is an inactive position.

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.^[22] Perez was seen as being more in line with the Clinton wing, while Ellison was more in line with the Sanders wing.^[23] The role's revival in 2017 has been described by critics as largely titular and ceremonial.^[24]

On November 8, 2018, Ellison resigned from the position due to his win in the Minnesota Attorney General election.^[25] The position remains unoccupied.

More information Officeholder, Term ...

Officeholder		Term	State
	Evan Dobelle[26][27]	1980–1981	Massachusetts
	Alexis Herman[28]	1989–1992	Alabama
	Ben Johnson[29][30]	2003–2005	Maryland
	Mike Honda	2003–2005	California
	Susan Turnbull	2003–2005	Maryland
	Keith Ellison	2017–2018[31]	Minnesota

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The DNC has existed since 1848.^[113] 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.^[114]

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.^[115]

Cyber attacks

Main article: Democratic National Committee 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.^{[118][119][120]}
• 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.^[121][122] 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.^[123][124] 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.^{[118][120][125][126]}

• Green National Committee
• Libertarian National Committee
• Republican National Committee
• Information published by WikiLeaks