This morning, the Democratic National Committee will begin a multi-round election to choose its new chair. Former President Joe Biden’s appointee, Jamie Harrison, is on his way out, and an array of party insiders and outsiders are competing to replace him.

The DNC’s 448 voting members include hundreds of Democrats elected and selected through state parties, along with smaller numbers of appointees, elected officials, and representatives from party groups like the Young Democrats of America. They will cast ballots for a new chair at a time when the Democratic Party itself is adrift, with no clear leader and no strategy for fighting the Trump agenda or regaining power. As one DNC member told me, “The DNC is not really talking about what went wrong and what we did wrong.”

With Republicans running the White House and Congress, the person who wins the DNC chair race will take on a critical role in U.S. politics. They will serve as a national spokesperson for the Democratic Party while simultaneously leading a fundraising and campaign organization that received and disbursed over $450 million in campaign funds over the last two years.

Given these realities, the DNC chair race has attracted national media attention – mostly of the horse-race sort. What hasn’t gotten the attention that it deserves is the curious reality of just how undemocratic the DNC actually is, and how this perpetuates the risk of national political defeats for the Democratic Party as a whole.

In writing this piece, I reached out to 427 of the DNC’s 448 voting members and interviewed 19 of them. Those who spoke with me came from ideologically, geographically, and racially diverse backgrounds. They included Democrats from rural and urban communities, grassroots party members, elected officials, and party insiders and critics alike. Most agreed to speak on the condition their names wouldn’t be used.

What emerged from these conversations is a picture of a DNC that is built to be an undemocratic, top-down institution, unable to truly leverage the wisdom and guidance of the DNC members who hail from local and state networks across the country. This is especially true when those local and state members disagree with the DNC’s posture or strategic choices.

Harrison, the outgoing chair, did not respond to interview requests, and DNC executive director Sam Cornale did not reply to written questions regarding the concerns raised by DNC members to me. If these member concerns are not addressed, there’s reason to fear the organization will be unable to effectively steer the party away from the kinds of electoral crises that it has faced in recent years, including its resounding national defeat in 2024.

A Culture of Deference

The DNC has several responsibilities: setting the Democratic presidential primary election calendar, organizing the Democratic National Convention, determining the Democratic Party platform, and supporting the election and........

© The Intercept