Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday endorsed a longtime liberal activist who has embraced the anti-Israel wing of the Democratic Party to lead the Democratic National Committee.
In his endorsement, Schumer described Ben Wikler, currently the chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, as a "tenacious organizer," a "proven fundraiser," and the best candidate to help the party "learn from the results" of the November election. Wikler’s support for anti-Israel activists would seem to put him at odds with Schumer, who bills himself as a staunch ally of Israel. The Wisconsinite has called on Democratic leaders to give a larger platform to the anti-Israel wing of the party, arguing that the DNC made a strategic error by rejecting speakers from the anti-Israel "Uncommitted" movement at the convention last year, according to Jewish Insider. In June, Wikler presided over the Wisconsin Democratic Party’s biannual convention, where members voted for a resolution to call for an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza and to axe any reference to the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7 that sparked the Israel-Hamas war.
Schumer’s endorsement comes ahead of a series of candidate forums to be held this month before an election on Feb. 1, as the party reels from one of its worst election defeats in years. Many Democrats have acknowledged that the embrace of left-wing policies on policing, crime, and diversity initiatives has turned off the party’s working-class base, but in Wikler, Schumer is backing a political operative who has been at the forefront of that leftward shift. On Wikler’s watch, the Wisconsin Democratic Party in 2021 updated its platform to call itself the "party of diversity, equity, and inclusion," urged the decriminalization of "dangerous drug use," and called to "reimagine policing and criminal justice."
Wikler served as a political organizer for years at MoveOn, a left-wing grassroots group, before his election to Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman in 2019. In that role, Wikler has embraced the Black Lives Matter movement. In August 2020, Wikler said the Kenosha police officer who shot Jacob Blake during an arrest attempt should be "investigated, tried, and convicted." Wikler called the shooting a "symptom of the deadly disease of white supremacy and racism," though he acknowledged "we don’t yet know the details of this situation." It later emerged that Blake pulled a knife on police when he was shot, and that he had an outstanding warrant for sexual assault.
Wikler downplayed the actions of rioters who tore down a statue of an abolitionist and a monument celebrating women's suffrage outside the state capitol in Madison in protest of the police shooting of George Floyd.
Wikler is running against former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, Minnesota Democratic Party leader Ken Martin, and New York state senator James Skoufis to replace outgoing DNC chairman Jaime Harrison. Harrison was elected chairman in January 2021, weeks after losing a Senate race in which he spent more than $100 million.
Schumer’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
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