Star Tribune
Wisconsin Democratic leader Ben Wikler enters the race to lead the national party
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party in Wisconsin, said Sunday he has joined the race to lead the national party after an election that swept Donald Trump and Republicans to power in Washington.
”In Wisconsin, we’ve built a permanent campaign,” Wikler said in his candidacy announcement. ”We organize and communicate year-round in every corner of the state — rural, suburban, urban, red, blue and purple areas alike.”
Since losing control of the White House, the Senate and the House, Democrats are looking for new leadership to tackle the nation’s problems with the additional challenge of confronting four more years of a Trump presidency.
So far, the other announced candidates to lead the Democratic National Committee are Ken Martin, chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and a vice chair of the national party, and Martin O’Malley, a former Maryland governor and current Social Security administrator. The DNC will choose its successor in February, an election that will speak volumes about how the party wants to present itself during four more years of Trump in the White House.
Wikler, who was elected state chair in 2019, cites his experience leading the party’s efforts in a state that shifted less toward Trump than other battlegrounds in 2024 and where Democrats won key downballot races.
He said that during his tenure, Democrats flipped the majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and reelected Tony Evers as governor. This year, the state returned Sen. Tammy Baldwin for a third term and retook 14 state legislative seats, which he says puts Democrats on track for majorities in both chambers in 2026.
”What has made a difference in Wisconsin can made a difference everywhere,” Wikler said.
Wikler, 43, has served as a Washington director for MoveOn.org, a progressive advocacy group and as a campaign director for Avaaz, a group that mobilizes members to take on issues such as poverty, climate change and human rights.
Fateh is the son of Somali immigrants: His father immigrated to America in 1963, and ended up in Bozeman, Mont. His mother came in the 1970s. Fateh was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Virginia, spending summers in Minneapolis.
He ran unsuccessfully for a Virginia school board in 2015, and moved to Minnesota later that year.
Two years after an unsuccessful 2018 House race for District 62A, he announced plans to challenge powerful incumbent Sen. Jeff Hayden in the DFL primary in District 62 in south Minneapolis. He upset Hayden and nabbed the DFL endorsement, and he went on to handily defeat Hayden in the primary, making him a shoo-in for the general election in the DFL-dominated district.
Party endorsing conventions were held online that year due to the pandemic, and at the time, Hayden raised the specter of voter fraud, questioning whether some voters lived in the district and calling the process “flawed.”
Two years later, Fateh’s brother-in-law and campaign volunteer was convicted of lying to a grand jury about returning absentee ballots for voters during the 2020 primary election. The charges sprang out of a wider federal investigation into misuse of the “agent delivery” process, which allows people to deliver ballots to election offices for voters with health problems or disabilities.
Minneapolis police are investigating a homicide after a 25-year-old woman was found dead with a gunshot wound Sunday afternoon.
Family members had not heard from the woman since Saturday night and had tracked her cell phone location, according to a release from Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara. At about 12:30 p.m. Sunday, officers found the woman, who was unresponsive, lying on the ground in the 3300 block of 10th Avenue South.
The woman had at least one gunshot wound, according to the release. Officials have not yet released the woman’s identity or details surrounding the homicide.
“My heart aches for this family,” O’Hara said in the release. “The thought that a family member is murdered is unbearable. We ask anyone with information to immediately contact our investigators.”
Star Tribune
Trump names Massad Boulos, campaign liaison and family relative, as a senior adviser on Middle East
Trump won Michigan by just over 10,000 votes in 2016 and Biden retook the state for the Democrats in 2020 by roughly 154,000 votes. Trump carried Michigan in November over Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, with 49.7% of the vote.
”Massad is a dealmaker, and an unwavering supporter of PEACE in the Middle East,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Trump, who has long installed family members and their relatives in key positions, is signaling that he will run his second administration the same way. On Saturday, he announced that he intends to nominate real estate developer Charles Kushner, father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, to serve as ambassador to France.
Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan, contributed to this report.
