Two top union leaders are departing the Democratic National Committee. The New York Times first reported that Randi Weingarten and Lee Saunders declined offers to stay on as at-large members of the DNC, escalating an internal conflict about the party’s future.
Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington, said Weingarten and Saunders leaving the DNC highlights the internal conflict within the party.
“I think the Democratic Party is really going through something of an identity crisis at the moment,” Farnsworth said.
Weingarten, who leads the American Federation of Teachers, pointed to leadership as one of the reasons behind her resignation.
“I appear to be out of step with the leadership you are forging, and I do not want to be the one who keeps questioning why we are not enlarging our tent and actively trying to engage more and more of our communities,” she wrote in a letter dated June 5 to DNC Chair Ken Martin.
Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said in a statement his decision was not made lightly.
“These are new times. They demand new strategies, new thinking and a renewed way of fighting for the values we hold dear,” Saunders said in the statement. “We must evolve to meet the urgency of this moment. This is not a time to close ranks or turn inward.”
“There was a contentious nomination process for running the DNC that took place a few months ago and this is kind of the aftershock of that moment, ” Farnsworth said.
The resignations come shortly after David Hogg announced he will forgo running again for DNC vice chair. The re-vote, which ran through Tuesay, came after Hogg and Pennsylvania State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta were removed from their roles.
Hogg expressed support for primary challengers against sitting Democratic incumbents, a stance that clashed with Martin’s position that the party should remain neutral in primaries.
Christopher Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, said he believes the moves could be connected.
“They very much understand the kind of signal they’re sending and I think there is a little bit of a front here that is attacking, or at least challenging, the Democratic Party norms,” Cooper said.
Plus, although resignations are not uncommon and affect both parties after a presidential loss, optically, this doesn’t look great.
“It’s going to cause a lot of people to look at the Democratic Party and ask whether it’s a really united party or whether it’s a series of fractured parties,” Cooper said.
DNC Labor Council Chair Stuart Applebaum defended Martin, telling Fox News Digital his vision for winning back working families is exactly how the party needs to move forward. But he also said Martin understands “that workers are the backbone of the Democratic Party.”
“Martin is bringing new people into our tent, reasserting the strength of the Democratic Party, and is already winning races to make us competitive in every part of the country,” Applebaum said.
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