On February 1, 2025, Democratic National Committee members will elect a new Chair and other officers, and determine the party’s direction. When a party holds the White House, the White House calls the shots, and the National Party Committee has a limited role. Sometimes, as under President Biden, the committee can flourish. More often, it is gutted. Losing an election (especially this one) is horrible, but it provides the committee the opportunity to choose not only its own leaders, but its own direction.
Philip A. Klinker’s The Losing Parties: Out-Party National Committees, 1956-1993 (Yale Univ. Press, 1994) observes that losing invites innovation and reform. National committee actions can be viewed as falling into the following categories: Organizational, policy (including messaging), and/or procedural (rules) responses. Spoiler alert: Democrats do procedure, Republicans do organization.
Organizational reform can take a variety of forms, but often focuses on national party support, funding, training, and guidance for state parties and their local components. Such efforts can address polling, technology and data, vote analysis, fundraising, volunteer organizing, voter registration, voter identification, get out the vote efforts, voter protection, communications, media, and coalition building. Some committees have put a priority on recruitment of federal and state candidates and providing candidate services directly. Organizational efforts at the national level have included research, communications, technology, finance, and constituency improvements.
Policy is a tough one for national committees – they (usually) adopt national platforms but typically at the direction of the likely nominee. In between elections, party committees adopt resolutions but lack the power to put them into effect. Normally, Congressional leadership and even potential candidates lead on policy issues. Sometimes, parties have adopted advisory policy committees. In 1956 Democrats created a virtual shadow cabinet to criticize the Eisenhour administration and make Democratic policy positions clear.
Message reflects party policies (however determined) plus research and communications, to improve party image. Messaging includes both criticisms of the opposing administration and education of the public about what the party’s values, beliefs, and issues.
Procedural (including rules) reform is primarily a Democratic Party endeavor. The Republican Party has followed Democratic initiatives but does not focus on making sure its party procedures are fair, open, and representative of the American people. From 1964 on the Democratic Party reform efforts have made the party more representative, participatory and inclusive, providing proper representation for constituency groups and giving the voters a voice in party affairs. “In short, the Democratic Party is devoted to being a democratic party.”
I would also recommend Seth Masket’s Learning from Loss: The Democrats, 2016-2020 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2020). The University of Denver political science professor analyzes reasons for the Democrats’ 2016 loss and the responses (especially rules reforms) which followed. He concludes that the DNC “focused on repairing what it saw as dangerous divisions within the party and restoring the perceived legitimacy of the party’s decision-making process.”
It’s up to the 448 Democratic National Committee members to choose new leadership and the priorities that deserve time, energy, and resources during this very challenging period.