President-elect Joe Biden has selected Jaime Harrison, a former Senate candidate from South Carolina, to serve as the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee, the New York Times and NBC News reported.
Harrison, who previously served as the chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party and as an associate chairman of the DNC, set fundraising records during his 2020 campaign against Sen. Lindsey Graham (R), a race that made Harrison a rising star inside the party even as he ultimately lost by 10 points.
He was among a group of Black Senate candidates in Southern states that included Sen.-elect Raphael Warnock in Georgia and Mike Espy in Mississippi, who all generated widespread enthusiasm in states where Democrats haven’t enjoyed much recent success. Along with gubernatorial candidates like Georgia’s Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum in Florida, Harrison and the other Senate challengers also offered convincing refutations of the Democratic Party’s traditional hesitance to embrace Black candidates in statewide races, potentially ushering in a new era of Black candidates and party leaders.
