The Unicorn of American Politics: The State Party
I was 35 when I became Vice Chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, and 37 when I was elected Chair, the first African American to lead the Party in its nearly 140-year modern history.
The day I walked into that office for the first time, I remember stopping cold. Everything was just so… small. The staff was thinner. The budget was tighter. But the stakes? They were enormous.
That moment fundamentally changed my understanding of politics. Because behind the speeches and the headlines, behind the social media clips and the polling memos, I saw where the real work happens.
It isn’t in Washington. It’s in the states.
And they are the unicorns of our system. Everybody claims to believe in them, but very few know what they actually do or how starving they are for resources.
Flexing the Muscle
Most people don’t realize that state parties are older than the national one. The first Democratic state parties formed in the 1820s during the Jacksonian era, decades before the Democratic National Committee even existed. They were the original infrastructure of our democracy.
Over time, though, as Washington grew, that origin story got lost. The national party became the face. The state parties became the footnotes.
But the truth is, the DNC and the state parties serve completely different purposes. Here’s how I think about it: The DNC is the nervous system that coordinates signals and information. The state parties are the muscles that do the actual moving.
State parties recruit candidates and identify political talent at every level of government. They build and maintain county-level precinct operations and train volunteers. They also maintain voter data, coordinate spending across campaigns, and run the machinery that makes democracy function at the neighborhood level.
Even presidential primaries run through them. The ballots, delegate credentials, rules, and calendars all flow through the state parties first. Every four years, the spotlight shifts to Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, or South Carolina. But it’s the local party staff, not the cable pundits, who make democracy real. The DNC cannot do most of that because it is a federal committee bound by federal FEC laws.
The DNC raises resources to support state parties, coordinates with other national committees, builds national infrastructure like the voter file and voter protection programs, and oversees the presidential primary calendar, delegate selection, and the national convention process. The DNC does not recruit candidates, and it does not have the authority or the proximity to do what state parties are structurally built to do.
The Hollowing Out
That’s what makes what happened next so devastating.
In the early 2000s, after the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), the financial lifeblood of the state parties dried up almost overnight. “Soft money,” the flexible funding that allowed state parties to invest in voter registration and organizing, disappeared. And when Citizens United later opened the floodgates for outside groups and Super PACs, money didn’t leave Democratic politics. It just left the Party itself.
New organizations sprang up to do what state parties had always done: register voters, build data, mobilize turnout. But they weren’t built to last. They chased election cycles, personalities, and headlines. Meanwhile, the state parties—the oldest institutions in Democratic politics—were left gasping for air.
The national party had the name, but the states had lost the muscle.
Rebuilding the Map
When Howard Dean became DNC Chair in 2005, he recognized the vacuum created by BCRA and the growing dominance of outside groups. His simple but revolutionary answer was called the 50-State Strategy.
He believed that Democrats should invest everywhere, not just where consultants said we could win. He sent money and staff directly to state parties, betting that strong roots would eventually produce stronger harvests.
And it worked. Democrats flipped governors’ offices in 2005, won back Congress in 2006, and expanded the map so broadly that Barack Obama could ride it into the White House in 2008.
That philosophy became the backbone of my work as DNC Chair years later. Along with Tom Perez and Ken Martin, we modernized the party—adding grant programs, creating the Red State Fund, and expanding support beyond the 50 states to include D.C., the territories, and Democrats Abroad. Today, all 57 Democratic parties have access to real investment.
The Reality on the Ground
But the brutal truth remains: most state parties are still starving.
People imagine them as big operations with dozens of staffers. In reality, many are powered by a single executive director, maybe one communications or data person, and a few interns. Most state party chairs are volunteers themselves even though it’s a full-time job. They collect zero salary and all of the blame.
They don’t need our cynicism. They need our partnership.
That was the common thread on this week’s episode of At Our Table when I sat down with three of my good friends who are state party chairs: Ray Buckley of New Hampshire, Daniele Monroe-Moreno of Nevada, and Christale Spain of South Carolina. After an hour of talking about what it really takes to keep democracy alive at the state level, Chair Monroe-Moreno summed it up perfectly:
“My Sit Your Ass Down Award goes to any Democrat who wants to criticize the party, but fails to get involved and be part of the solution. I’m gonna need you to sit your ass down.”
We all emphatically agreed because we all know the truth: the people doing the work rarely have time for the people who just complain about it.
Water the Roots
The Party is only as strong as the people who show up for it.
If you’ve never attended a precinct meeting, volunteered for a phone bank, or chipped in a few dollars, you can’t really complain about the state of the Party. You can’t criticize what you’ve never helped to build.
So here’s my ask: if you believe in democracy, don’t just donate to the presidential campaign or share the viral clip. Adopt your state party.
Volunteer.
Sign up to be a precinct captain.
Show up one Saturday a month.
And yes, give what you can.
Some of these C4s and PACs we get enamored with do good work, but they are often built around individuals or the issue of the moment. They are here today, but they can be gone tomorrow. If you want to build lasting power, don’t just fund the moment. Fund the infrastructure.
Because if we want a strong Party tomorrow, we have to water the roots today.
The roots—the real Party, the soul of American democracy—are in the states. Always have been. Always will be.
Your piece on the importance of state organization is brilliant. Thanks.
Ok. The “sit your ass down” award comment got me up off my ass to donate to the Alabama Democratic Party. They have a lot of work to do to improve. But we’ve got Doug Jones running for governor. & the party should be doing things that helps him, & other dems running in the state.