Spring 2026 update:

The Democratic Party and the United States of America both stand at a crossroads of accountability. The presidency is controlled by an increasingly deranged madman at war with almost the entire world, and with the majority of his own citizens. He should by all rights be removed from office by impeachment and conviction, but the Republicans in Congress are too terrified of his cult of personality, Fox News and the rightwing influence machine to do the right thing. There is no mechanism to hold Trump or his criminal cronies accountable—yet.

The Democratic Party, meanwhile, is in the peculiar position of vastly overperforming in almost every single special election, even though as an institution our popularity is at record lows. This is mostly because, while the public has grown to despise Trump and the MAGA movement, the Democratic Party is seen as too weak and ineffective to stand up to them. Voters across the spectrum require more visible accountability and performance from the Party itself before we can earn back their trust.

It was in this uncomfortable context that last week’s DNC Meeting in New Orleans took place. And accountability was a major theme across nearly all aspects of the Party’s business. (As usual, I will mostly provide my analysis here: for a more granular recap of proceedings, see Michael Kapp’s excellent summary here.)

Under Chair Ken Martin, the DNC has been successfully engaged in the process of finance reform and small-d democratic regrowth: it is putting the party’s resources into grassroots activism and assisting long-suffering state parties. Rather than dictating from on high in pro forma sessions, there was genuine debate and uncertainty as to outcomes in the standing committees. There was even a genuine, not-preordained set of motions and debate from the floor in general session. It may not seem like much to the untrained eye, but these are excellent steps toward a party engaging from the bottom up.

In the Resolutions Committee, we passed a number of excellent resolutions affirming our progressive values. But I wanted to particularly make note of two resolutions that I wrote alongside my friend and colleague Michael Kapp: resolutions 11 and 27 in the Resolutions Report. The first of these demanded full legal accountability for Trump Administration officials who are breaking the law, and promising both governance and constitutional reforms to prevent similar lawlessness by any future administration. I am proud to say it is one of the strongest commitments to legal accountability for the crimes of the Trump regime by a Democratic Party organ, and it is now the official policy of the DNC. The other resolution we co-wrote reaffirmed the Party’s commitment to the values-based global leadership and the rules-based international order that Republicans have abandoned to America’s detriment.

Sadly, these resolutions did not receive the media attention enjoyed by two of the resolutions that failed to pass. Notably, one of these resolutions called out AIPAC specifically in the context of opposing dark money in primary elections. The other called out the artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency lobbies in a similar vein. My take on this, broadly, is that the electorate wants to see a clear contrast between the corruption of the Republican Party and a more open and transparent culture on our side. The Party, meanwhile, has a longstanding policy of not calling out specific industries and activist groups in resolutions. These two principles are in conflict, and the party is still seeking a way forward. On AIPAC specifically, both AIPAC and anti-AIPAC groups have a vested interest in portraying AIPAC as more influential in the party than it actually is, leading to a predictable (if somewhat intentionally manufactured) media firestorm. It is also a particularly fraught issue: the party must reaffirm its fierce commitment to opposing antisemitism and Islamophobia, while also standing firmly against the crimes of both Hamas and Netanyahu. Any organization that uses heavy-handed influence campaigns to attempt to manufacture consent for the unacceptable will not find itself shielded from accountability for long by a party whose base demands better.

With regard to crypto in particular, the party may need to revisit its resistance to calling out specific industries in order to prove to our voters and allies that we stand behind our values—even if it discomfits some potential donors who have profited in unsavory ways from poorly regulated financial instruments.

There was also a resolution to abolish ICE, which was weakened in Committee to “restructure” and “overhaul or replace” ICE. I disagree with this move, and believe the resolution to abolish ICE should have remained unchanged. This met with contentious debate on the floor, and several members chose to remove their co-sponsorship accordingly.

In the Credentials Committee on which I serve, accountability was again the theme. The Alabama Democratic Party has been in turmoil for the better part of the last decade as its leadership has consistently held elections for both internal and DNC positions that failed to measure up to best practices. You can read the whole story in the Credentials Committee report. Suffice it to say that despite the DNC having given the leadership of the Alabama state party chance after chance to fix the problems and hold credible and accountable elections, it failed to do so. Therefore, the Credentials Committee officially voided the election of two of Alabama’s DNC members (the third won by margins comfortably large enough that the challengers agreed to drop their challenge to that member.) The Alabama Democratic Party will hold new elections for its DNC members later this year, with oversight and assistance from the DNC to ensure fairness and transparency in the composition of and notice to the electorate, as well as the actual vote.

The Rules and Bylaws Committee also met to do its slow and grinding work. No actual changes to the bylaws were made at this meeting, but a motion did pass to incorporate my colleague Michael Kapp’s change to increase accessibility for the disabled at DNC National Conventions.

Finally, overshadowing much of the meeting were the revelations about former Congressman and former California governor candidate Eric Swalwell. California’s DNC delegation issued a joint statement condemning Swalwell’s alleged inappropriate and criminal acts, and demanding he drop out of the governor’s race. The rumors around Swalwell’s behavior had been swirling around the Capitol for years. Unfortunately, there was a failure to adequately listen to the complaints of staff, and the accountability that could have prevented many abuses was far too late in coming. Our party must do better, even if the Republicans show no similar moral compass in their own leadership. It is our duty to provide a better example and to protect the vulnerable, much sooner than we did in Swalwell’s case.

The Democratic Party isn’t perfect by any stretch. But it is getting better. I’m working hard in the capacity I can to help push in the right direction, and I’m happy to hear from you directly how I can do better to serve us at the DNC.

Democratically Yours,
David

Summer 2025 update:

I want to give you a different kind of report about our recent Summer DNC meeting in Minneapolis—something you can use when frustrated constituents and activists ask you “what is the DNC actually even doing to stop Trump?”

As a fellow activist, I know we both care about the nuts and bolts of who got elected and appointed to what (and yes, our California DNC members have done very well on the front and are poised to have major influence in the DNC going forward. I myself was appointed by Chair Martin and approved by the body to serve on the DNC’s Credentials Committee.) For all of those details, please see my friend and newly appointed DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee member Michael Kapp’s excellent “Re-Kapp” here.

But we also both know that your average worried Democrat doesn’t care who sits on what committees. They want to know what the DNC is doing to stand up for Democratic values and stop the MAGA assault on our Constitution, our democracy, and on basic decency.

This is a complicated question with a complicated answer. But what I can say is that the DNC, led by its new chair Ken Martin, is taking a more proactive, independent, and fighting stance than it has in the past. Chair Martin reflected the mood of most of the DNC membership in the audience when he said that he’s “tired of Democrats bringing a pencil to a knife fight” with Trump, whom he called an “orange bastard” to heavy applause. Other speakers at the meeting all reflected a similar sentiment. As DNC Executive Committee member and New York State Senator James Skoufis said, “We’ve moved on from despondency to the ‘give them hell’ stage of the recovery.’”

But words are cheap. You want to know, “where is the action?” Well, this is where the complexity of party organization frustrates activists. Because while people think of “the DNC” as the main controlling body for the Democratic Party’s messaging and legislative actions, this is far from the case.

I regularly give presentations across the state on the structure of the Democratic Party (if you would like me to do so for your club or County Committee, please let me know!), and the lack of unity and coordination among party bodies is often surprising. The DNC does not control the legislative strategies of House and Senate Dems. There is no Committee for Stopping Authoritarian Takeover of Democracy at the DNC. We pass resolutions that can’t go beyond the National Convention Platform, change our bylaws, allocate some of the party’s funding (at least, when we don’t hold the White House), and set partisan primary calendars. These are all very interesting for political organizing in normal times, but we do not live in normal times.

Within that limited scope, the DNC is making excellent reforms and progressive steps under Chair Martin. Previous iterations of the DNC were far too accommodating to whatever the White House wanted under a Democratic administration, with far too little independent concern for the overall health of the Party outside the interests of the President. Under Obama, the DNC was neutered in favor of OFA; under Biden, the DNC was more concerned with the interests of the President and his consultants than with recognizing and adapting to the political danger in which we found ourselves. And, of course, no matter whose side you were on, it’s clear that in 2016 the DNC did not cover itself with glory in handling the presidential primary process. For the last several decades, gatekeeping insiders and moneyed interests were seen as having overly powerful influence in the DNC. That is an accurate view.

In Minneapolis we took four key actions:

1) we passed a suite of internal reforms designed to democratize the DNC, weaken the power of the Chair, ensure the neutrality of DNC leadership in internal primaries, and add more elected grassroots leaders to the DNC’s standing committees. (For all the details, see my DNC colleague and Rules and Bylaws Committee member Garry Shay’s excellent report here.)

2) We elected and confirmed the appointments of a large number of grassroots and reform-minded DNC members to standing committees. It will not be the “go-along-to-get-along business as usual” as it has been in the past, and Chair Martin has encouraged standing committee members to vote their consciences rather than obey directives from on high. Unlike in the past, Chair Martin and DNC staff are not placing their fingers on the scale.

3) We are fund state parties and grassroots organizing efforts at an unprecedented level. The days of the DNC amassing a war chest just to spend exorbitant money on increasingly worthless last-minute TV ads are at an end.

4) We passed a number of hard-hitting resolutions, as well as the strongest resolution in DNC history aimed at curtailing dark money in our own Democratic primaries. On the contentious issue of Gaza, the Chair withdrew his own resolution after the failure of another more forceful resolution, and pledged to workshop a compromise that would reflect party values and the sentiments of base Democrats. (I myself worked with Resolutions Committee members on language to hopefully achieve a compromise at the meeting itself—I was almost successful but our language fell just a few votes short.)

Does any of this stop the fascist takeover of our democracy? No, it mostly doesn’t–though funding state parties instead of useless last-minute TV ads should yield major dividends in elections from top to bottom going forward. But most of that power, such as it is, lies in the hands of our governors, attorneys general, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).

What are they doing? Well, our blue state governors and attorneys general are actually doing quite a lot both openly and also behind the scenes. They are our first line of defense. The DSCC and DCCC? Not so much. They are unfortunately too beholden to consultants giving them bad advice—such bad advice, in fact, that even Ezra Klein recently wrote a New York Times op-ed calling out their feckless strategies. When worried Democrats fret about the Democratic Party’s poor messaging and lack of fighting spirit, this is unfortunately where the problems lie. We can’t be reverting to boring messages about healthcare and cost of living while giving Republicans everything else they want, even as earth-shaking evidence drops proving Trump wrote sickening messages full of innuendo and crude drawings to his buddy Jeffrey Epstein. It’s political malpractice, no matter what the consultants’ misleading quant surveys may suggest.

But that’s not the fault of the DNC. That’s on the DSCC and DCCC, and we need to make that distinction to our fretting friends and in our own activism. Your DNC leadership and most of your DNC members are doing what they can to fight, in all the ways (local, state and national) that we can. I myself am doing what I can as well, both in my internal Party activism and in my writing at Washington Monthly. And the good news? Democrats are crushing it in special elections so far. California is on track to pass Prop 50 to counter GOP mid-cycle election rigging, as long as we put in the work. We just have to make sure there will actually be free and fair elections going forward.

If you have any questions or ideas for what I can do, or how we at the DNC can improve, please reach out to me as always. If you would like me to present on these issues and the party’s structure to your Committee or club, I would be happy to schedule a time to do so.

Democratically yours,

David Atkins, Elected DNC Member from CA
Member, DNC Credentials Committee

1/26/25 update:

Trump's second presidency is a harrowing time for America. The rights and lives of our fellow citizens, the health of our economy and the very existence of our democracy are already sustaining a withering assault from Trump and his allies.

As the Democratic Party charts a path forward to fight back against these attacks and minimize the damage, we also need to take stock of how we can do better. One Trump election could be considered a fluke--two constitutes a five-alarm fire. Democrats have steadily been losing ground with voters across the demographic board. We have lost influence in almost every media channel from AM radio to the newest social networks. We have to look inward at how we got here and what we can do better.

I wrote my longer, broad strokes analysis of what Democrats and left-leaning groups need to do better here in a piece at the Washington Monthly: "What Moderates and Progressives Got Wrong (and Right) About the Democratic Electoral Defeat." I hope we can take some of these lessons to heart as we rebuild trust with dispirited and persuadable voters.

The DNC as the official and most visible body of the Democratic Party must also be reformed and improved. My friend and fellow DNC member Michael Kapp and I wrote a piece also at Washington Monthly on what we need from the next party leaders at the DNC. The piece has already been cited and quoted at The Wall Street Journal, The Week and elsewhere. I hope that no matter who is elected as DNC Chair and executive officers at our election meeting on February 1st, they will implement these reforms. Included on the list are:

1. Commit to funding progressive/liberal alternative media that can help drive truthful narratives year-round and combat far-right misinformation.
2. Be more comfortable with authentic messages and messengers that don’t neatly fit the day’s talking points. Avoid succumbing to banal gestures like policy or the ever-popular “let’s form a commission to study the problem.” 
3. Support state parties. The DNC must deliver ongoing and grant-based funding to local parties and state organizers across all 57 states and territories and listen to those organizers when they signal dangers the party must address. 
4. Empower DNC Members to organize for positive outcomes nationally and in their home states. DNC members should be able to communicate with one another.
5. Dilute the Chair’s power, significantly reducing its appointments so the DNC can be more agile and accountable. 
6. Limit the power of the usual D.C.-based consultants to make funding and messaging decisions. This is one of many reasons the next DNC Chair should be full-time and live in DC. 
7. Follow the party’s rules and bylaws, even under pressure from elected officials to do otherwise. The next DNC Chair should avoid conflicts of interest by not taking any outside sources of income. 
8. Emphasize small-dollar donations and curb dark money. 
9. Enact a primary calendar that will battle-test our nominees and better emphasize the voices of Hispanic and Asian Americans in swing states.  
10. The DNC’s budget must be open to members, and topline decisions (such as the primary calendar, the quadrennial Convention site selection, the number of presidential primary debates, and their entry rules) must be discussed and ratified by the entire DNC. Members of the public should be able to quickly identify and contact their DNC Members and attend DNC meetings. 
11. Win and hold elected Democrats accountable. The primary responsibility of the next DNC Chair is to win elections. Democrats must win the White House in 2028, but a Democratic Congress in 2026 will be essential to protect Americans from a second Trump Administration. And down-ballot races are necessary for rebuilding our bench of elected Democrats. Finally, Democratic officeholders must be held to the ideals and views set out in the 2024 National Party Platform. Unlike MAGA Republicans, who go along with the whims of an increasingly erratic octogenarian with fascist views, Democrats stand with and for the people. The next DNC Chair must be willing to stand up to a Democratic White House, Congressional leaders, and political consultants if they press the organization to place their interests ahead of the greater good. 

While I believe that both Ken Martin and Ben Wikler would make excellent DNC chairs and both have emphasized many of these reforms, I have known and worked with Ken Martin for years on many of these issues in the DNC. I have seen him not only talk the talk, but walk the walk alongside reformers when it was not popular or convenient for him to do so. Above all, I am less interested in who will raise the most money or from where, than I am in making certain that we spend it on wiser, longer term investments regardless of prior relationships. I believe that Ken Martin is best positioned to make these commitments and changes, which is why he has my endorsement.

For the rest of the positions, my primary focus is on ensuring we have candidates who are committed to these same reforms and able to do the work necessary to take the fight to Trump and his MAGA allies. To that end, I am currently supporting the following:

Chair: Ken Martin
Treasurer: Merika Coleman
National Finance Chair: Tim Lim
Secretary: Jason Rae
Vice Chair for Civic Engagement and Voter Participation: Reyna Walters-Morgan
Vice Chairs: Michelle Dietrick and James Zogby
Backup vice chair candidates (if my first choices do not have the votes): David Hogg, Shasti Conrad, Kalyn Free, Artie Blanco

Please let me know if you have any thoughts or concerns as we approach this pivotal election, and let's get to work.

David

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Prior Meeting reports:

10/9/23: Read here for my report on the Fall 2023 DNC meeting, and our priorities as we prepare for another showdown with Donald Trump and the GOP.

2/6/23: Read here for my report on the Winter 2023 DNC meeting, including thoughts on the new primary calendar, the DNC's relationship to president's re-election campaign, and what I believe progressive priorities should be in advance of the presidential election.

9/11/22: Read here for my report on the Summer 2022 DNC meeting, including reform efforts and a behind-the-scenes look at how the DNC works.

3/17/22: Read here for my update on the Spring 2022 DNC meeting and our ongoing reform efforts!

10/9/21: Read here for my update on the Fall 2021 DNC meeting

1/21/21: Read here for my update on the Winter 2021 DNC meeting

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May 2024 update:

Thank you to the California Democratic Executive Board for allowing me to to serve another four year term on the DNC! I was grateful to receive over 200 votes from the party's most committed organizers and elected officials from across the state, and will strive to do my best to fulfill the promises I made on the campaign: more and better organizing, more state and local decision-making, greater transparency, more small-dollar fundraising and a greater voice for California in national affairs.

I am excited to do my part to defeat Donald Trump and the rise of far-right totalitarianism, hold the Senate, win back the House, and push for a brighter future for California and the United States.

________________

November 2023 update:

DNC Election Update: I am running for re-election to the DNC! The election will take place in May at the California Democratic Party Executive Board meeting in San Diego.

I have worked hard in my first term to help push the DNC to do more of the medium and long term organizing that only the DNC can do, as well as transparency reforms to increase trust in the party and make it work more efficiently to elect more Democrats up and down the ballot.

Our top priority this year is, of course, to re-elect Joe Biden and every Democrat down ballot to stop the rise of far-right authoritarianism and push for more progressive legislation. But the DNC also needs to do a better job of organizing for the future to win in communities and geographic areas where we have been losing ground. We also need some basic transparency reforms to deliver more input from Democratic leaders and activists doing the hard work in our communities, and to work more closely with the state party orgs in all 57 states and territories—including California. California needs a stronger voice at the DNC so that our needs and concerns are also addressed.  These are the issues I have been working on at the DNC and will continue to prioritize in a second term:

• Pushing the DNC to pursue more medium- and long-term organizing rather than just parachuting into battlegrounds with last-minute advertising campaigns
• Democratizing the DNC by giving more input and decision-making power to the state parties rather than vesting them solely in Washington DC
• Reducing the number of appointees by the Chair
• Clean money and small dollar fundraising that treats Californians as partners rather than just a cash cow
• Re-implementing a 50-state strategy with deep canvassing that builds our party everywhere, especially red areas in California and across the country
• Transforming the DNC into a vehicle for organizing nationwide, especially in areas often ignored by other national Democratic organizations like the DCCC and DSCC
• Pushing other states to elect their DNC members in a more democratic fashion
• Running the DNC with transparency and respect for rules of engagement and debate

I have also been keeping Executive Board members and the public up to date on activities at the DNC with regular updates after every meeting. Please see the updates below:

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March 2020 update:

I am grateful to have been elected as one of the DNC members from California for the 2020-2024 term!

The election results can be viewed here. Thank you to all who participated in the election, and especially to everyone who took the time to have speak with me, hear my thoughts and let me know their priorities and concerns. I am deeply appreciative of all those who placed their confidence in me, and thank you so much for your votes, endorsements and support. And thank you also to the DNC members whose terms are coming to a close for their years of dedicated service.

My term on the DNC does not officially begin until the close of this year's Democratic National Convention, but I am already working on the issues I raised during the campaign: transparency, accountability, institutional reform and progressive policy. And I am looking forward to serving in earnest.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or issues you may have, and I am excited to work with all of you to help improve our shared Democratic Party!

________________

My campaign message and platform: 

I'm David Atkins, and I'm running to be your next Democratic National Committee (DNC) member from California. I’m running because I believe the DNC must be more transparent and more democratic, and prioritize the values of grassroots Democrats instead of big donors and special interests.

I’m a grassroots activist with a history of progressive reform and a national voice. I want to use my skills, experience and platform to continue the progress we’ve already made to make the DNC more accountable to you—not special interests. I am running to be your voice on the DNC. As your elected DNC member, here’s what I want to accomplish:

Progressive Reform

In order to win elections everywhere, the DNC must be unafraid to be a progressive party that refuses to compromise on the issues in order to make donors and corporations feel more comfortable. As your DNC member, I promise you that I will always vote to end corporate donations, emphasize Medicare for All, fight to expand affordable housing, and make sure that the existential threat of climate change gets the attention it deserves from party leadership.

Transparency

Far too many Democrats have no idea what the DNC is, how it works, and how it makes decisions. This is harmful for two reasons: it erodes the trust that grassroots Democrats ought to have in our party leadership, and it prevents our party leadership from being accountable to its activists. As your representative on the DNC, I will work to increase transparency so that you can not only know what the DNC is doing in your name, but also so that you can know how to influence the process and make your voice heard.

Accountability

For too long, the DNC has been a body that simply rubberstamps the decisions made by the Chair and the inner circles of leadership. The climate change debate issue that came to a head at the 2019 summer meeting in San Francisco shows that this model is in desperate need of change. I will fight to reform the DNC to make sure that grassroots Democrats are guaranteed a seat at the table and have the tools to hold leadership accountable.

I’m proud to make the following reforms key to my campaign platform:

• Democratizing the DNC by giving more decision-making power to the state parties rather than vesting them solely in the Chair
• Reducing the number of appointees by the Chair
• Clean money and small dollar fundraising that treats Californians as partners rather than a fundraising piggybank
• Re-implementing a 50-state strategy that builds our party everywhere, especially red areas in California and across the country
• Transforming the DNC into a vehicle for organizing nationwide, especially in areas often ignored by other national Democratic organizations
• Pushing other states to elect their DNC members in a more democratic fashion
• Running the DNC with transparency and respect for rules of engagement and debate
• Emphasizing fully coordinated campaigns up and down the ballot, uniting our national, state and local efforts to help build our bench across the country

About me:

I’m running because I believe I have the experience, vision, and dedication needed to accomplish progressive change on the DNC.

I got involved in the fight to make the Democratic Party more progressive as a volunteer in Howard Dean’s presidential campaign in 2004. In the 15 years since, I haven’t stopped organizing to beat Republicans, support progressive causes, and hold the Democratic Party accountable to its values.

I currently serve as the Region 10 Director for the California Democratic Party, serving Assembly Districts 35, 37, 38 and 44. I’m also a Co-Chair of the CDP Credentials Committee, member of the Ad Hoc Committee on ADEMS, and the South Vice Chair of the Santa Barbara Democratic Central Committee. In addition, I'm a nationally recognized writer for a number of major publications covering both state and federal politics. You can read more about my background and qualifications here.

The DNC election will take place at the 2020 Spring Executive Board Meeting of the California Democratic Party in Visalia. I would love to count on your support and endorsement in this campaign--I'm looking forward to working on your behalf on the DNC, and would love to hear from you with your thoughts and perspectives in the days and weeks ahead!