Leader of WA Democrats wins leadership post with national party
Shasti Conrad, chair of the Washington state Democratic Party, won a leadership post with the Democratic National Committee on June 20, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Washington state Democratic Party)
Washington state Democratic Party chair Shasti Conrad won a coveted leadership post with the Democratic National Committee on Friday.
Conrad was elected DNC vice chair, giving her a voice in crafting the party's strategy for responding to the Trump administration and recapturing control of Congress in 2026.
She beat Kalyn Free, a national committee member from Oklahoma, in a run-off after neither garnered a majority in a first round of balloting earlier this week. That initial round featured a third candidate, Jeanna Repass, chair of the Kansas Democratic Party.
Conrad, 40, said in a statement that she was 'deeply grateful' for the result, which came after six days of voting.
'This was the longest election in DNC history, and every vote cast reflected our shared belief in building a stronger, more inclusive Democratic Party,' she said.
The party is looking to bounce back after a disastrous 2024 cycle. Conrad has argued that Democrats don't need to drastically change their message or positions and instead must improve how they communicate with voters.
She has also argued that the platform that has brought Democrats success in Washington, where the party controls all statewide elected offices and the Legislature, can be replicated to rack up victories elsewhere.
'We are not just strategizing to win elections. We are working to transform lives,' Conrad said before results came out.
The DNC chose two vice chairs over the past two weeks in a do-over of Feb. 1 elections that were won by Malcolm Kenyatta and David Hogg.
Those contests were invalidated after Free filed a complaint contending the party failed to follow its own rules on gender parity in officer elections. DNC members agreed to rerun elections for those seats. Only candidates who made it to the final round of voting in February and were eligible for each seat under party rules, could compete.
Hogg, a 25-year-old gun-control activist, declined to run for his seat. He faced criticism from fellow Democrats because of his plans to fund challenges to Democratic incumbents with his group, Leaders We Deserve.
Hogg's exit left Kenyatta, a Pennsylvania state representative, as the only eligible candidate in the election for the vice chair position that had to be filled by a male under the DNC rules. Kenyatta was elected Saturday.
Conrad, 40, is in her second term as leader of Washington's Democratic Party and is the first South Asian woman to lead a state party.
She had the backing of DNC Chair Ken Martin, who appointed her in March to be an associate chair for the national party. In this role, she said she's strived to spotlight issues of importance to Asian Americans and to work with influencers on ways to better engage younger voters.
'As a millennial, I'm committed to creating more opportunities for young people to get involved and become the leaders of today—not just tomorrow,' she said. She added that she'd ensure Asian American and Pacific Islanders 'have a seat at every table where decisions are made.'
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