Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is running to lead the Democratic National Committee following the party losing the presidential election and seats in Congress.
Mr. O’Malley resigned as head of the Social Security Administration and has turned his attention to the DNC’s top job.
“We face enormous challenges and a lot of soul-searching,” Mr. O’Malley said in an interview with The New York Times. “We need to focus on fixing the problem and not the blame.”
Mr. O’Malley is looking to take over the reins from Jaime Harrison. Mr. Harrison, an understudy of Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, where he served as state party chair, has signaled he plans to vacate the job after Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential race.
The next chair will be tasked with digging the party out of the rubble of a tough election cycle that saw President Biden get pushed aside over concerns about his age and mental fitness for the job and replaced with Vice President Kamala Harris. She lost to Mr. Trump in a rout.
Ms. Harris led a ticket that suffered several down-ticket losses in high-profile congressional races that will give the GOP control of the three branches of the federal government next year.
Mr. O’Malley, 61, is no stranger to national politics. He ran for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2016 but flamed out early.
He is pushing for a post-election audit that looks at what the Democratic Party got wrong in a race in which Ms. Harris and others tried to make the campaign a referendum on access to abortion, defending democracy and Mr. Trump’s unconventional and controversial ways.
Mr. O’Malley said he is not interested in weighing in on whether Mr. Biden should have stepped aside earlier to allow for a robust primary race to replace him.
“I’m running for chair of the DNC because I believe I can lead us out of this darkness and into a better future where we do a better job of connecting with the American people around the economic reality,” Mr. O’Malley told The Times. “I can’t fix yesterday. I’m not running to fix yesterday or second-guess yesterday.”
Mr. O’Malley served as governor of Maryland from 2007 to 2015, and he was also mayor of Baltimore before that.
Mr. Biden tapped him as Commissioner of the Social Security Administration.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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