The DNC Is Betting on a Woman Boss to Turn the Midterms Blue
Ahead of a pivotal midterm battle to take back Congress from the party of President Donald Trump, the Democratic National Committee is putting a woman in charge.
The party’s new CEO will be Seema Nanda, most recently of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and a former top aide to DNC Chairman Tom Perez, the party told Glamour ahead of Friday’s official announcement.
“People are hurting all across our country,” Nanda said in comments provided to Glamour by the DNC. “I believe that Democrats are offering the positive solutions so desperately needed right now – solutions forged by the strength of our diversity, the rigor of our ideas, and the decency of our values.”
Nanda replaces former CEO Jess O’Connell, who in January announced she was leaving after less than a year.
The first Asian-American to head the DNC in recent memory, Nanda takes the reins from an interim ceo, Mary Beth Cahill, in overseeing the financial and political trajectory of the DNC at a pivotal moment.
The Democrats are trying to generate a “blue wave” to control of the House from the GOP by anchoring Republicans to a controversial and unpopular president. But the party is also facing an internal reckoning on how to craft the best message for November and has dramatically trailed fundraising by the Republican National Committee under its chairwoman, Ronna Romney McDaniel.
As the Center for American Women and Politics has noted, “Democratic women are the real drivers of the surge in female candidates in 2018: women are 33% of all Democratic candidates but only 14% of all Republican candidates.” It remains to be seen how much women, both as voters and candidates, will change a political landscape in which they are underrepresented at the federal level on down.
“Women are not only making their voices heard, but this hire also signals that women are leading the Democratic Party, and I couldn’t be prouder of that,” said the DNC’s communications director, Xochitl Hinojosa.
Amid a national outcry over the separation of migrant families detailed at the U.S. border, the DNC is also emphasizing Nanda’s past experience as head of the DOJ’s Office of Immigrant and Employee Rights Section.
When she steps into her new assignment this summer, Nanda will oversee the party in close coordination with Perez. She was his chief of staff when he ran the federal Labor Department during the Obama Administration.
“As we head toward such a crucial election,” he said in comments forwarded by the party, “I’m 100 percent certain that Seema’s leadership will help the DNC capitalize on the unprecedented grassroots energy and enthusiasm surging throughout the country.”
Nanda, who has also worked in the Justice Department’s Division of Civil Rights, is a graduate of Brown University and Boston College Law School.
She lives in Arlington, Virginia with her husband and her 12- and 14-year-old sons.
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