New Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin said Tuesday that union workers and labor leaders will be “core to my decision-making.”
“As Trump wages his war on working families, Democrats will fiercely answer the call to my favorite old union song, ‘Which Side Are You On?’ I’ll tell you what: Democrats are on the side of the worker,” he said. “We will show Americans every day that workers in fact do have more power than any billionaire.”
President Trump’s recent reelection, as well as Republicans’ keeping of the House and regaining of the Senate has rattled Democrats. The party has been hunting for their identity ever since.
Following the election results, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) alleged that the Democratic Party had been mostly ignoring working class priorities, pointing to that as the largest reason as to why it lost a federal governing trifecta.
Martin told The New York Times late last year that he found it “deeply alarming … that for the first time in modern history, the majority of Americans believe that the Republican Party best represents the interests of the working class and the poor.”
“I fundamentally believe that our party is grounded in the values, principles, and aspirations of the working class,” Martin said in his Tuesday memo.
“As Chair of the DNC, that belief will guide my decisions and approach in the years ahead. In contrast, in only his first month in office, it’s become abundantly clear Donald Trump doesn’t give a damn about the kitchen-table issues that matter to most Americans,” he added.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
