1848 ; 168 years ago 1848 1 headquarters 430 south capitol st se washington d.c. u.s. key people donna brazile interim chair andrew tobias treasurer stephanie rawlings blake secretary website www.democrats.org the democratic national committee dnc is the formal governing body for the united states democratic party . the committee coordinates strategy to support democratic party candidates throughout the country for local state and national office . it organizes the democratic national convention held every four years to nominate and confirm a candidate for president and to formulate the party platform . while it provides support for party candidates it does not have direct authority over elected officials . the dnc is composed of the chairs and vice chairs of each state democratic party committee and over 200 members elected by democrats in all 50 states and the territories . its chairperson is elected by the committee . it conducts fundraising to support its activities . the dnc was established at the 1848 democratic national convention . 1 the dnc s main counterpart is the republican national committee . contents 1 campaign role 2 dnc fundraising 3 current leadership 4 dnc national chairs 5 controversies 5.1 illegal fund raising 5.2 cyber attacks 5.3 wikileaks 6 see also 7 references 8 external links campaign role the dnc is responsible for articulating and promoting the democratic platform and coordinating party organizational activity . when the president is a democrat the party generally works closely with the president . in presidential elections it supervises the national convention and both independently and in coordination with the presidential candidate raises funds commissions polls and coordinates campaign strategy . following the selection of a party nominee the public funding laws permit the national party to coordinate certain expenditures with the nominee but additional funds are spent on general party building activities . 2 there are state committees in every state as well as local committees in most cities wards and towns and in most states counties . the chairperson of the dnc is elected by vote of members of the democratic national committee . the dnc is composed of the chairs and vice chairs of each state democratic party s central committee two hundred members apportioned among the states based on population and generally elected either on the ballot by primary voters or by the state democratic party committee a number of elected officials serving in an ex officio capacity and a variety of representatives of major democratic party constituencies . chicago delegation to the january 8 1912 democratic national committee the dnc establishes rules for the caucuses and primaries which choose delegates to the democratic national convention but the caucuses and primaries themselves are most often run not by the dnc but instead by each individual state . primary elections in particular are invariably conducted by state governments according to their own laws . political parties may choose to participate or not participate in a state s primary election but no political party executives have any jurisdiction over the dates of primary elections or how they are conducted . outside of the process of nominating a presidential candidate the dnc s role in actually selecting candidates to run on the party ticket is minimal . all dnc members are superdelegates to the democratic national convention whose role can influence a close primary race . these delegates officially described as unpledged party leader and elected official delegates fall into three categories based on other positions they hold 3 elected members of the democratic national committee . sitting democratic governors and members of congress . distinguished party leaders consisting of current and former presidents vice presidents congressional leaders and dnc chairs are all superdelegates for life . dnc fundraising in the 2002 election cycle the dnc and its affiliated committees which include numerous local committees and committees formed to coordinate expenditures for specific districts or races raised a total of us 162 062 084 42 % of which was hard money . the largest contributor with us 7 297 937 was the saban capital group founded in 2001 by haim saban . fred eychaner the owner of newsweb corporation gave the second highest amount of money to the dnc and its affiliates us 5 175 000 . the third largest contributor was steve bing of shangri la entertainment who gave us 4 758 000 . 4 in the 2006 election cycle the dnc raised a total of us 37 939 887 . the three largest contributors were investment bank goldman sachs us 225 600 . university of california us 121 980 and pond north llp us 109 296 . 5 the dnc introduced a small donor fund raising campaign the democracy bonds program set up by howard dean in the summer of 2005 . 6 there were only 31 000 democracy bond donors by may 2006 off pace from the goal of 1 million donors by 2008 . the program no longer is in place . in the 2016 election cycle the dnc raised a total of us 75 945 536 as of july 21 2016 . the three largest contributors were hedge fund renaissance technologies us 677 850 newsweb corp us 334 000 and total wine us 298 100 . 7 in june 2008 after senator barack obama became the presumptive democratic presidential nominee dean announced that the dnc emulating the obama campaign would no longer accept donations from federal lobbyists . 8 in july 2015 during the 2016 election cycle the dnc led by debbie wasserman schultz reversed this policy . 9 current leadership interim national chair donna brazile vice chairs maria elena durazo executive secretary treasurer of the afl cio 10 raymond buckley president of the association of state democratic chairs chair of the new hampshire democratic party r. t. rybak former mayor of minneapolis minnesota grace meng representative from new york s 6th district 11 executive director amy dacey resigned on august 2 2016 . 12 13 treasurer andrew tobias businessman author and financial self help guru secretary stephanie rawlings blake mayor of baltimore 14 communications director luis miranda resigned on august 2 2016 13 national finance chair henry mu oz iii 10 in addition a national advisory board exists for purposes of fundraising and advising the executive . the present chair is elizabeth frawley bagley former u.s. ambassador to portugal . dnc national chairs chairperson term state 15 benjamin f. hallett 1848 52 massachusetts robert milligan mclane 1852 56 maryland david allen smalley 1856 60 vermont august belmont 1860 72 new york augustus schell 1872 76 new york abram stevens hewitt 1876 77 new york william h. barnum 1877 89 connecticut calvin stewart brice 1889 92 ohio william f. harrity 1892 96 pennsylvania james k. jones 1896 1904 arkansas thomas taggart 1904 08 indiana norman e. mack 1908 12 new york william f. mccombs 1912 16 new york vance c. mccormick 1916 19 pennsylvania homer s. cummings 1919 20 connecticut george white 1920 21 ohio cordell hull 1921 24 tennessee clem l. shaver 1924 28 west virginia john j. raskob 1928 32 new york james a. farley 1932 40 new york edward j. flynn 1940 43 new york frank c. walker 1943 44 pennsylvania robert e. hannegan 1944 47 missouri j. howard mcgrath 1947 49 rhode island william m. boyle 1949 51 missouri frank e. mckinney 1951 52 indiana stephen mitchell 1952 55 illinois paul m. butler 1955 60 indiana henry m. jackson 1960 61 washington john moran bailey 1961 68 connecticut larry o brien 1968 69 massachusetts fred r. harris 1969 70 oklahoma larry o brien 1970 72 massachusetts jean westwood 1972 utah robert s. strauss 1972 77 texas kenneth m. curtis 1977 78 maine john c. white 1978 81 texas charles taylor manatt 1981 85 california paul g. kirk 1985 89 massachusetts ron brown 1989 93 new york david wilhelm 1993 94 ohio debra delee 1994 95 massachusetts chris dodd1 1995 97 connecticut donald fowler 1995 97 south carolina roy romer1 1997 99 colorado steven grossman 1997 99 massachusetts ed rendell1 1999 2001 pennsylvania joseph andrew 1999 2001 indiana terry mcauliffe 2001 05 virginia howard dean 2005 09 vermont tim kaine 2009 11 virginia donna brazile 2011 11 interim louisiana debbie wasserman schultz 2011 16 16 florida donna brazile 2016 interim louisiana 1 general chairperson source controversies illegal fund raising in 2002 the federal election commission fined the democratic national committee 115 000 for its part in fundraising violations in 1996 . 17 cyber attacks main article democratic national committee cyber attacks cyber attacks and hacks were claimed by or attributed to various individual and groups including but not limited to according to committee officials and security experts two competing russian intelligence services were discovered on d.n.c. computer networks sometime in may 2016 . one intelligence service achieved infiltration beginning in the summer of 2015 and the other service breached and roamed the network beginning in april 2016 . the two groups accessed emails chats and research on an opposing presidential candidate . they were expelled from the d.n.c. system in june 2016 . 18 19 20 the hacker guccifer 2.0 claimed that he hacked into the democratic national committee computer network and then leaked its emails to both the newspaper the hill 21 22 and the whistleblowing website wikileaks . 23 hillary clinton s campaign manager robby mook cited experts saying that the dnc emails were leaked by the russians . 24 25 the press and cybersecurity firms discredited the guccifer 2.0 claim and who investigators now believe was an agent of the g.r.u. russia s military intelligence service . 18 20 26 27 wikileaks main article 2016 democratic national committee email leak on july 22 2016 wikileaks released approximately 20 000 dnc emails . 28 critics claimed that the committee favored the contender and 2016 nominee hillary clinton and acted in support of her nomination . the leaked emails spanned sixteen months terminating in may 2016 . 29 the hack was claimed by the hacker guccifer 2.0 but several cybersecurity firms believe this assertion is false . 30 in the wake of the wikileaks releases the exposure of many embarrassing emails relationships and policies resulted in the rapid resignations of chairperson debbie wasserman schultz communications director luis miranda chief financial officer brad marshall and chief executive amy dacey . 31 see also information published by wikileaks references a b party history . retrieved february 17 2007 . archived november 4 2006 at the wayback machine . public funding of presidential elections . federal election commission . february 2005 . retrieved october 29 2006 . delegate selection materials for the 2016 democratic national convention pdf . december 15 2014 . retrieved may 19 2016 . top contributors 2002 election cycle dnc opensecrets . www.opensecrets.org . retrieved 3 august 2016 . top contributors dnc 2006 cycle . www.opensecrets.org . center for responsive politics . 17 june 2013 . retrieved 3 august 2016 . 2006 democracy bonds . retrieved on august 2 2007 . archived august 13 2007 at the wayback machine . top contributors dnc 2016 election . www.opensecrets.org . center for responsive politics . 21 july 2016 . retrieved 3 august 2016 . rhee foon june 5 2008 . dnc bars washington lobbyist money . the boston globe . archived from the original on july 15 2008 . smilowitz elliot july 24 2015 . dnc to allow lobbyist money to fund conventions . the hill . retrieved august 2 2016 . a b democratic national committee january 22 2013 . democratic national committee elects new officers at meeting in washington today . www.democrats.org . archived from the original on february 2 2013 . retrieved january 25 2013 . rep. grace meng elected dnc vice chairwoman . roll call . 2016 07 29 . retrieved 2016 07 29 . jeff zeleny and tal kopan . dnc ceo resigns in wake of email controversy . cnn . retrieved august 2 2016 . a b top democratic national committee officials resign in