Democratic National Committee (DNC) members will determine in June whether a contested election over two DNC vice chair positions should be held again.
Members of the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee met Thursday night, determining that the party will hold an electronic vote June 9-11 over whether the election for DNC vice chair positions won by Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta and activist David Hogg should be held again after one of the candidates who lost the election challenged the way the race was conducted.
If a majority of the members vote to hold a new election, the DNC has said an electronic vote will take place June 12-14 for the first vice chair, which must be filled by a man. A second electronic vote for the second vice chair, which can be filled by any gender, would take place June 15-17.
Oklahoma DNC member Kalyn Free, who unsuccessfully ran for DNC vice chair, issued a challenge over the DNC vice chair election results in February, alleging in a letter that the committee’s “decision to ignore the Charter, Bylaws and upend the stated Election Rules in conducting the election for the second and third Vice Chair positions gave the two male candidates an unfair and insurmountable advantage over the women candidates.”
“By placing all five candidates — Mr. Kenyatta, Mr. Hogg, Ms. [Shasti] Conrad, Ms. Free, and Ms. [Jeanna] Repass — on the same ballot and aggregating votes across two rounds, the process unfairly disadvantaged the women candidate,” she added in her letter to several DNC officials.
Both Hogg and Kenyatta expressed during the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting on Thursday that they both disagreed with the idea of trying to hold another election for their posts.
“If we proceed with voiding and redoing this election, we risk sending a message that undermines … the confidence” that the party worked hard to build, Hogg told members, adding later that the “signal that we send them matters, and in this case, it would be that Democrats can’t run an election.”
Kenyatta during the meeting said, “It is no big secret that I fundamentally believe we held a fair election at National Harbor, an election that produced an officer corps that looks like America and that, in a historic fashion, elevated for the first time ever, two people to our committee under the age of 35.”
The Pennsylvania state lawmaker added that if members did proceed to move forward with a new election for their roles, he said he hoped that there would be at least a virtual forum to assess the candidates.
The move to potentially order a redo of the elections comes as Hogg has separately drawn the ire of some Democrats for investing resources in primarying ineffective members of the party.
DNC Chair Ken Martin has said DNC officeholders should not be involved in primarying efforts within the party.
“While certainly I understand what he’s trying to do, as I’ve said to him — if you want to challenge incumbents, you’re free to do that, just not as an officer of the DNC,” Martin said.
The vote to potentially redo the vice chair election is not related to Hogg’s primary efforts, though the developments coupled together have underscored a rocky start to his term as DNC vice chair.
The moves are also putting intraparty tensions on display at a time when the party is looking to reset from a disappointing November election.
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