New Democratic Committee Chair Renews 50-State Strategy

(Bloomberg) -- New Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison is meeting with groups from across the party’s coalition as he renews a strategy to compete in all 50 states.

Harrison, who ran unsuccessfully for Senate in South Carolina before taking over as head of the DNC in January, will speak with groups representing rural and Black Democrats first.

But he stressed that there’s no particular order behind the meetings, which include groups representing Asian, Hispanic and Native American Democrats; veterans and military families; LGBTQ voters; labor unions and small businesses; and different regions of the country.

Harrison will hold the meetings virtually because of coronavirus safety precautions.

“The DNC is committed to building on our successes -- and that means putting in the work from Day One, organizing for every election in every ZIP code in every year, and integrating the lessons we can learn from those working directly in our states and with critical groups of voters,” Harrison said.

The former head of the South Carolina Democratic Party, Harrison has indicated that he wants to help state parties organize across the country, a move reminiscent of former DNC chair Howard Dean’s approach leading up to the 2008 elections, called the 50-state strategy.

Harrison’s predecessor, Tom Perez, also talked about competing everywhere, and Democratic candidates such as Harrison raised large amounts of money through small donors in last year’s races. But ultimately, the party fell short. Republicans did well in down-ballot races across the country, picking up a net of 12 seats in the House of Representatives and holding onto vulnerable Senate seats in Iowa, Maine and North Carolina.

Democrats were able to take control of the Senate thanks to wins in two Georgia runoffs in January.

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