Minnesota will be the center of Democratic politics on Friday when almost all of the party’s 2016 presidential candidates headline the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting.
Part team building, part pep-rally, the meeting is an opportunity for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee to reach out to the most connected leaders in the Democratic Party, people who come 2016 will be considered coveted endorsements.
The audience is markedly pro-Clinton. Stickers with Clinton’s H logo are ever-present and the American Federation of Teachers has stacked the area of the event open to the public with 75 Clinton supporters in t-shirts that read, “AFT For Hillary 2016.”
Clinton’s speech is expected to play to the friendly audience and focus more on Republicans running for president than the Democrats challenging her. Clinton has yet to mention any of her Democratic 2016 competitors by name and she isn’t expected to break the trend on Friday.
Clinton’s campaign has brought a sizable team to Minneapolis, too. In addition to the aides who regularly travel with her, Robby Mook, her campaign manager, Marlon Marshall, the campaign’s director of state campaigns and political engagement, Marc Elias, the campaign’s lawyer, and Charle Baker, the campaign’s chief administrative officer, are all at the DNC meeting to help lock convince delegates to commit to Clinton.
The campaign is already hyper-focused on the number of super delegates — party activists, leaders and elected officials whose support counts to the eventual delegate count that decides the party’s nominee — that have endorsed the former secretary of state. Clinton and her top aides receive daily briefings that tally their super delegates, and Mook said Friday that Clinton aides feel very confident in their super delegate strength.
Sanders, an independent senator who caucuses with Democrats in Washington and is seeking the party’s presidential nomination, will take his fiery anti-establishment rhetoric to the most establishment Democratic meeting in the country Friday.
O’Malley has been the most outspoken candidate against the DNC since launching his campaign earlier this year. The former governor routinely chides the party for only sanctioning six debates in the nominating process.
On Thursday in New Hampshire O’Malley charged the party with “circling the wagons” around Clinton.
“Until we start having debates, our party’s going to be defined and branded by questions like: What did Secretary Clinton know, when did she know it, and when will the FBI conclude its investigation?” O’Malley told reporters. “That’s not a formula for success in the fall.”
DNC officials say it is highly unlikely that the party sanctions any more debates, even with O’Malley’s complaints. It is also unlikely, they say, that the party will lower their strict rules about participating in unsanctioned DNC debates.
Chafee, a former Republican senator and indepdendent governor, is a long shot in the Democratic race. He will discuss his unique qualifications to be president, Debbie Rich, his spokeswoman said Friday, along with the importance of electing a Democrat in 2016.
Not speaking at Friday’s event: Former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb.
Webb informed the DNC last week that he would be seeing his daughter off to college on Friday and unable to make it to Minneapolis.
“We saw no plan offered by DNC officials for meaningful interaction with their members,” said Craig Crawford, Webb’s spokesman. “Time-limited 10 minute speeches and a hospitality room? Direct mail vendors probably get more exposure.”
Candidates like Webb and O’Malley have openly complained about the DNC’s ties to the Clinton campaign. Those complaints grew louder on Thursday when the DNC and Clinton’s team signed a joint fundraising agreement, allowing the Democratic frontrunner to raise money for the party.
Although a DNC spokesperson said they hope to sign similar deals with other campaigns, none have yet.
“The Democratic National Committee,” said Crawford, “is like watching another really poor parody of The Sopranos.”