Candidates to lead the Democratic National Committee (DNC) doubled down on issues that poll poorly with voters while being shouted down by climate protestors during a Thursday candidate forum at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
The nine contenders to helm the party blamed alleged racist and sexist Americans for tanking former Vice President Kamala Harris’ decisive defeat in November while defending the ability of illegal migrants to remain in the United States, DEI initiatives and designating President Donald Trump as a fascist threat. The three MSNBC hosts moderating the panel repeatedly expressed frustration with climate protesters affiliated with the Sunrise Movement disrupting the forum’s proceedings with one contender comparing the evening’s chaos to how voters view the current state of the Democratic Party: weak and adrift.
“I’m a little bit frustrated that they [climate activists] then decided to run this into scream night at the DNC forum,” longshot DNC chair contender, Connecticut attorney Jason Paul, said during the event. “They hijacked the whole evening.”
“That is what a lot of people think our party is like,” Paul continued. “They [climate activists] will come in, they will disrupt, they will shout, they will scream, they will not listen. They will not hear us. They will not be respectful. And that when we let people scream over us, we look weak.”
A @sunrisemvmt protester interrupts the DNC chair candidate forum at Georgetown and is escorted out. I missed it on camera but her initial chants were demanding to know what the party would do to stand up for the working class against billionaires. pic.twitter.com/zMpkOokTQX
— Daniel Marans (@danielmarans) January 31, 2025
Climate protesters allegedly disrupted the forum to pressure the candidates to ban the DNC from taking corporate PAC donations and prohibit Super PAC spending in Democratic primaries, according to a Sunrise Movement press release following the event.
The candidate forum comes as the Democratic Party’s approval rating is nearing historic lows.
Just 31% of registered voters approve of the Democratic Party while 57% disapprove, handing Democrats a 26% net unfavorable rating, according to polling released by Quinnipiac on Jan. 29.
Nine contenders are running to replace current DNC chairman, former South Carolina Senate contender Jamie Harrison, after he announced he would not seek another term. Harrison notably presided over the party losing the popular vote for the first time since 2004, failing to take back the House and shedding four Senate seats in November.
Amid heated debate in the Democratic Party about how to respond to November’s bruising election losses, nearly every contender reverted back to issues that voters appeared to reject in November.
“Fascism is literally in the [White] House,” frequent Democratic presidential candidate and DNC chair contender Marianne Williamson, said onstage. “What is about to happen is that for the first time — that in less than 100 years — a generation of Americans is having to defeat the lure of fascism once more.”
Every contender agreed with MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart’s question about whether voters alleged racism and misogyny contributed to Harris’ resounding defeat in November.
When asked by DNC members about increasing transgender and Muslim representation in the Party’s leadership, every candidate committed to deepening the organization’s focus on race-based initiatives that did not appear to resonate with voters.
Trump notably won in November with the most racially diverse coalition a Republican president has put together in decades.
“Racism has not gone away since 20 people of African descent came upon these shores at Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 and it’s going to require us think and behave in a new way,” Quintessa Hathaway, a DNC chair contender said during the forum. “It is systemic. It is structural when it comes to addressing diversity, equity, inclusion, access and belonging that is for all people of the United States.”
“I think we need to come to reckoning that the President is forwarding something called a narrative that’s based on a white supremacist narrative called the great replacement theory,” former Biden Department of Homeland security official and DNC chair candidate Nate Snyder said during the forum. “That’s his master narrative that’s feeding into everything. It’s a language in the EOs [executive orders], it’s a language in his legislation. It’s a language that attacks that we heard today, attacking DEIA [diversity, equity, inclusion and access] and especially the disability community as well.”
Faiz Shakir, who ran independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential candidate, appeared to be the only contender to articulate a new vision that sought to leave the Democratic Party’s focus on identity politics behind.
“I am frustrated by the way in which we utilize identity to break ourselves apart,” Shakir said in a response to a question asking the DNC to commit to increasing transgender representation that reflects the “gender and ethnic diversity of the transgender community.” “These caucuses, councils all separate us out and don’t focus on what brings us all together, and then we find ourselves competing … we’re competing over the wrong thing, competing over scarce resources. We should be joining together, programming mission to fight together.”
Shakir is not expected to prevail in the Party’s elections on Saturday. The three frontrunners are Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman Ben Wikler, Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chairman Ken Martin and former Democratic Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
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