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Martin O'Malley for DNC Chair [1]

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Date: 2025-01-31

I hope that delegates to the Democratic National Convention will elect Martin O'Malley for DNC Chair. My reasons for this are three fold: I believe that he can undo one of the greatest mistakes of the 2024 election: the mistreatment of small donors after election cycle, I believe he will be open to new ideas and new voices within the party and I believe he can be an effective communicator to the working class.

On balance, Kamala Harris ran a good campaign. However, she spent far too much on ads asking small donors for money, and irritated small donors by sending out emails for almost a month after the election. If you send $1,000 to a campaign, you'll probably take a selfie with the candidate. If you can donate $10,000 to a political campaign you'll probably take a photo with the candidate. If you can donate $250,000 to a campaign/party, you'll probably have a private meeting with the candidate. That our candidates spend so much time doing that means they don't talk to people who donate $5, $10 and $20 at a time. This leads to party leaders not always hearing the concerns of working and middle class voters. Early in the DNC campaign, Martin O'Malley's campaign sent me an email asking for money (it was a typical small donor email and I had donated a small amount to his 2016 campaign). I sent a nominal amount to O'Malley's DNC campaign. The Governor himself responded with a quick thank you note from his personal email address. That is the first time in almost two decades of being a small donor that I've been thanked personally by a candidate for national office when I gave a small donation.

This shows that Governor O'Malley is open to new voices because for someone in his position to do that is to invite people to chime in and say what they think. The Democratic Party has hemorrhaged its support in rural areas over the last 16 years. Kamala Harris ran 30-40 points behind Barack Obama's 2008 performance in rural counties. If we are to solve this problem, there has to be an open door at the top of the party. And a person who cares and listens behind that open door.

Many years ago, I had a blog that was focused on health care. I had personal health issues that laid the inadequacies of the system bare. I happened to be a resident of Maryland at the time, and I was not always kind to then-Governor O'Malley on my blog. After he left office, I had reason to reach out to a former staffer of his. When we connected, the staffer said, "Thank you for your advocacy. You helped make our policies better." We need a Democratic Party Chair who will be the opposite of Trump, and who realizes that it is hard to advocate politically, hard to criticize people in power, and that sometimes criticism makes people better. It doesn't mean that the leader will always agree with activists but it does mean that activist voices will be heard and considered.

Finally, a big issue that impacts both urban and rural areas is the scourge of fentanyl. This awful drug, once concocted by the pharma industry to make a profit and now cooked by international drug cartel to do the same is ruining so many people's lives. Fentanyl usage is not OK. Fentanyl dealing is not OK. We need aggressive and humane policing strategies that assist addicts in finding treatment where they can overcome their addiction. Martin O'Malley has both held drug dealers who ruin communities accountable as Mayor and advocated for criminal justice reforms as a candidate for President five years before it was fashionable to do so.

I have seen how Martin O'Malley's experience and ability to communicate in a plain spoken manner can change minds. Long after his Governorship was over and his Presidential campaign had failed, O'Malley was a surrogate for a campaign I worked on in a heavily Republican district. He came and did an event for a long-shot candidate. He got himself, and the candidate, into the paper with a message that was laser-focused on the issues important to that rural community. The candidate came up a couple points short, but it is those types of elections that build the foundations that flip seats and build majorities.

For what the DNC Chair is an era of Donald Trump and Elon Musk running amok--I believe it is part cheerleader, part organizer and part a person that does not fear getting into disputes with our nation's President, I believe Martin O'Malley is the perfect choice. I hope that delegates will elect him this weekend.

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