WASHINGTON — Rep. Jonathan Jackson, D-Ill., is contemplating jumping into the contest to be the next chairperson of the Democratic National Committee, with a path to victory hard to see because he is getting in the race very late.
DNC members vote on the new chair Feb. 1. To get on the ballot, Jackson needs the signatures of 40 DNC members submitted no later than 8 p.m. ET Jan. 25.
In theory, there is still time for Jackson and others to make a bid. In reality, it will be very tough because other contenders have been campaigning for months.
“I don’t know yet,” Jackson told me on Monday when I asked him about a DNC chair run. Jackson, sworn into his second term on Friday, said he will decide by Wednesday on whether to run. AXIOS first reported Jackson was thinking about making a bid.
Jackson’s only public supporter so far is Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who said in an Instagram post last week, “There is a movement to draft Congressman Jackson as DNC Chair among several of my colleagues. If he makes the race, I am all in. He understands where we fell short and what a true 50-state strategy looks like.”
Khanna over the weekend promoted Jackson while appearing on Rev. Al Sharpton’s MSNBC show, plugging, as he said it, “Jesse Jackson’s son, Jonathan….he’s in Congress and he’s strongly being urged by many of us to run,” citing as a reason “lots of members of Congress and communities who are asking for resources for grassroots organization.”
Jackson declined on Monday to provide a list of supporters. More on Jackson’s uphill battle if he gets in:
- Obviously, Jackson was not part of a candidate forum hosted on Monday by the DNC’s powerful Labor Council, which represents about a quarter of all voting DNC members.
- Jackson confirmed Monday that he has not even talked to the Illinois members of the DNC to pitch his candidacy, even though he started making calls to others last week. Seems hard to jump into the DNC race if you don’t have your own state delegation lined up to back you.
The Illinois DNC members who will vote on a new DNC chair are Illinois Senate President Don Harmon; Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch; Rep. Robin Kelly; Rep. Delia Ramirez; former Illinois Senate President John Cullerton; Attorney General Kwame Raoul; Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs; former Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes and former Illinois Democratic County Chairs’ Association chief, Kristina Zahorik.
- Jackson said if he was DNC chair, he would want to figure out why so many African-American men and women “feel left out.” President-elect Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris by improving his numbers in almost every racial group.
- The DNC Labor Council invited the leading DNC chair contenders: Wisconsin party chair Ben Wikler; Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party chair Ken Martin; former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who President Joe Biden picked to lead the Social Security Administration; James Skoufis, a New York state senator and Nate Snyder, a former U.S. Department of Homeland Security official.