Two months after Jaime Harrison lost his bid to oust Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, he won something else: the Democratic National Committee’s chairmanship.
Harrison won the organization’s election after President Joe Biden tapped him for the job in 2021. Democrats had already secured control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, meaning his job for the last three years was to bolster the party’s agenda.
Now, many eyes are on Harrison as delegates head to the party’s every-four-year gathering next week in Chicago. The South Carolinian who lives in Columbia with his wife, Marie, and two sons, will shepherd his first convention during what has been a topsy-turvy election season. Democrats are looking to keep the White House, secure a slim Senate majority, and regain control of the House in November.
In addition to guiding the convention, Harrison certifies the Democratic Party’s nominee for president.
His political career began when he worked for U.S. Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC 6th District), an influential Democrat and Biden ally, as director of floor operations during the senator’s time as majority whip. Harrison also served as executive director of the House Democratic Caucus and vice chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party.
Before that, Harrison had a career as a lobbyist for the Podesta Group, where clients included banks such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo, along with other companies like Lockheed Martin and BP.
Since his work with Clyburn, Harrison steadily rose through the Democratic Party ranks. In 2013, he was the first Black person elected chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party. He held that position until he was appointed an associate DNC chair in 2017.
Three years later, he ran a competitive and closely watched race against Graham in a state considered a GOP stronghold. During the campaign, he talked about his beginnings born to a single teen mother in Orangeburg and raised by his grandparents. He received a scholarship to Yale University, where he studied political science, and also earned a juris doctor from Georgetown University Law Center in 2004. He returned to Orangeburg to teach at his old high school.
He broke multiple fundraising records in the contest against Graham, including raising $57 million during the final full quarter of the campaign, the largest single-quarter total by any candidate in U.S. Senate history. He ran on the expansion of Medicaid and expanded COVID-19 relief but ultimately lost the election by more than 10 percentage points, receiving 44% of the vote compared to Graham’s 54%.
Lee Turner, then-president of Democratic Women of Greenville County and active in the party since 2017, said she was first drawn to Harrison’s “likability” when he ran against Graham.
She said she remembers watching him talk with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and said later she and other Greenville Democrats “worked hard during his campaign.”
After the double-digit loss, the race and his later win as DNC chair put South Carolina Democrats on the map. Turner said that throughout his campaign, Harrison received a lot of TV time, a hard feat for a South Carolina Democrat.
Even former political rival Graham congratulated Harrison when he took the DNC helm. “This is a big honor and I’m confident he will do a good job representing the Democratic cause,” Graham said. “Jaime will be a formidable opponent.”
Turner will not attend the Chicago convention but said Harrison has “done a great job in a hard environment,” referring to Democrats’ campaign to retain the White House even as criticism grew surrounding Biden’s potential second term.
DNC puts all eyes on Harrison
After Biden’s disappointing debate performance against former President Donald Trump in late June, prompting multiple Democrats to call for Biden’s dissolution of his re-election campaign, Harrison was a vocal advocate for him to remain in the race.
“He has earned this nomination. It hasn’t been given to him. He earned it because of the good work he’s done for the American people, so we need to stick with him,” Harrison told MSNBC.
Once Biden decided to step aside last month and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him as the party’s presidential candidate, Harrison praised Biden but did not immediately endorse Harris.
More: SC Dems are “riding with Biden” after some lawmakers call for him to end reelection bid
He eventually oversaw five days of electronic roll-call voting by delegates to select a nominee. The voting usually takes place during the convention, but the DNC was forced into a virtual nomination because Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose threatened to keep the party’s candidate off the ballot if they were not formally nominated before the state’s electoral deadline on Aug. 7. The delegate voting ended Aug. 5.
“It is my great honor and privilege to congratulate the Democratic Party’s official nominees for President and Vice President, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” Harrison said in a statement “A Harris-Walz ticket represents the future of the Democratic Party and our country.”
Harrison emphatically defended the choice for the virtual nomination, even sparring with the founder of FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver, on X.
“So if we did nothing, then from August 7th- September 6th, we would not be in compliance with the OH law. To not have a presidential candidate on a state ballot would have enormous consequences and impacts on turnout for all races on the ballot,” Harrison wrote in a lengthy post to the social media website. “So you can definitely take that risk and other chances when you Chair a party… I, however, will not.”
Savannah Moss covers politics for the Greenville News. Reach her at smoss@gannett.com or follow her on X @Savmoss.
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Publish date : 2024-08-14 22:03:00
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