Faiz Shakir, a former campaign manager for Senator Bernie Sanders and a longtime progressive Democratic strategist, is jumping into the race for chairman of the Democratic National Committee, demanding the party more directly debate how to position itself to rebuild public trust and regain power.
Mr. Shakir would appear to be a long shot. But his entrance could shake up a contest that so far has been dominated by two middle-aged Midwestern white men who lead state parties — Ken Martin in Minnesota and Ben Wikler in Wisconsin — and who have disagreed mostly over mechanical, internal and tactical matters.
In an interview, Mr. Shakir said he was joining the race because he grew frustrated at seeing the candidates focus too much on procedural and bureaucratic details of running the committee and too little on what he said should be an ambitious vision for the chairmanship: shaping what the Democratic Party should say and stand for.
If elected, Mr. Shakir said, his mission would be to redefine the Democratic Party as the party of the working class — including by reaching beyond the typical confines of campaigns, such as organizing to support striking workers.
“We are rebuilding trust with people who don’t believe the Democratic Party has been there when it matters most to them,” he said.
He described the Democratic brand as fundamentally “tarnished,” “broken” and in need of repair.
“It’s late in the game,” he said of his entrance. “If we can’t have a bold debate about these issues — it’s now or never.”
Mr. Shakir said he had not yet whipped committee members for support, but believed there was a large contingent of D.N.C. members who remained undecided.
Best known for leading the Sanders campaign in 2020, Mr. Shakir also has a history of working with more traditional Democratic Party leaders, including former Senator Harry Reid of Nevada and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He also was the political director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Mr. Shakir now is the executive director of More Perfect Union, a nonprofit supporting pro-labor journalism and advocacy, and interviewed President Biden on camera after the election about economic issues. In the interview, Mr. Biden endorsed a ban on congressional stock trading.
Mr. Shakir said he had sent a letter on Wednesday to the 448 members of the Democratic National Committee announcing his run. In it, he called for the party to build “its own powerful media outlet” and to engage with Trump supporters while building “an organizing army” and fielding more candidates for local offices.
The current crop of candidates to lead the party, he wrote, has been uninspiring.
“As I have listened to our candidates, I sense a constrained, status-quo style of thinking,” Mr. Shakir wrote. “We cannot expect working-class audiences to see us any differently if we are not offering anything new or substantive to attract their support.”
Among the existing candidates, Mr. Martin has demonstrated particular strength among fellow Democratic state party leaders — especially those in states that do not draw attention during national campaigns — while Mr. Wikler is popular among Democrats in Washington and the party’s major-donor class.
The intraparty debate over who will lead it has so far largely revolved around internal concerns such as how much money the national committee will allocate to state parties and who will or will not be awarded contracts to do the party’s work.
There have been signs in recent days that Mr. Martin has begun to pull away from Mr. Wikler and others. This week, Mr. Wikler attacked Mr. Martin by name during an appearance on MSNBC, then posted the clip on his social media accounts.
Mr. Martin has claimed he has support from more than 100 of the 448 national committee members. Mr. Wikler has declined to reveal his whip count.
“There are two people with significant support and no one has a majority of the D.N.C. members yet,” Mr. Wikler said in an interview Tuesday. “This is going to be a roller coaster for the last three weeks.”
Mr. Shakir enters a race that, along with Mr. Martin and Mr. Wikler, includes six other candidates who have qualified for the party’s next candidate forum, on Thursday in Detroit. Mr. Shakir entered too late to participate. He would be eligible to appear in the final two scheduled forums set for later this month.
The other candidates include former Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland, who has said he has support from 60 D.N.C. members; James Skoufis, a New York state senator who has said he is the first choice of nearly two dozen members; and the author and past presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, who has declared that “ordinary politics is an inadequate response” for the moment.
Another candidate, Robert Houton, who received 0.3 percent of the vote in Maryland’s Senate primary last year, said Tuesday that he had received enough signatures from D.N.C. members to appear in the final two forums and have his name be placed on the party’s election ballots Feb. 1.
Jaime Harrison, the current party chair, is not seeking re-election.
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