Ken, I carefully read your statement. I wish that I could just say Amen!

But I can’t, because it is clear to me that you and your DNC have, for whatever reasons, not been prioritizing how to win elections for progressive Democrats.

It goes deeper than backing establishment candidates like Janet Mills in Maine. A vibrant, positive populist movement has been brewing in Maine for years. Did you not see it? Why not? You didn’t want to support it? Why not?

Of course, your huge misstep was allowing Biden to continue on well past his viable capacity. And then what did you and your committee do? Anoint Kamala Harris, who asserted, among other things, that she could not think of one thing she would do differently than Biden. Sweet. [I knew we were cooked when she said that]

I have another example of your Committee’s sclerosis: I discovered to my shock and dismay that, until about a month ago, your DNC site continued to feature the 2024 Democratic presidential platform, with “President Biden” and “VP Harris,” with the “Issues” circa May 2024!

This in an age of digital social media, in which voters are being bombarded with up-to-the-minute information/disinformation! How in heck could you have allowed this to happen?

I have an informed view about this comms debacle, because when I discovered this travesty midway through 2025, I began a full court press campaign to beseech the DNC to bring your site up to date. I sent hundreds of messages to every DNC operative I could identify. I contacted many other top Dem leaders and their comms staffs.

I received very, very few responses, and in June I gave up. Out of curiosity, I checked the DNC site, and, behold, it has been updated! Fresh, lively graphics; up-to-date issues statements; succinct, compelling rapid response segments. I am delighted to see that Kendall Witmer is now your Rapid Response Coordinator. She is putting out great stuff on a daily basis.

Ken, why did it take so long for your DNC site to become an effective digital social media platform? Given my experience, I sense that a younger generation of digital social media savants are eager to bring the DNC comms up to date.

But deeper than the digital comms issue is: Are you and your current colleagues the best team to lead the Dems to victory? Like Biden and so many others, it’s hard to step down and hand over the torch. But maybe it’s time, past time? Please make a decision that is in the best interest of our country.

Thank you very much.

Theodore [Ted] Ryan, PhD

I am writing here as an individual.

My professional affiliation:

Adjunct Professor of Management & Leadership

Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University

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