The Democratic National Committee is appointing three women of color to some of its top leadership positions, Refinery29 can exclusively report.
The DNC has promoted Waikinya Clanton, the brains behind the committee's Seat At the Table Tour, from director of African-American outreach to senior advisor to Chair Tom Perez; Rachana Desai Martin, who until recently served as interim chief operating officer, will be in the role permanently; and Reyna Walters-Morgan is joining the DNC as director of voter protection and civic engagement.
Currently, more than half of the senior leadership team are women and many of them come from marginalized communities, according to the organization.
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"Our rich diversity of background and experience is what has made the new DNC a political force in electing Democrats up and down the ticket in every corner of the country," DNC CEO Seema Nanda said in a statement provided to Refinery29. "These three phenomenal women embody our core ideals and will bring new energy to our leadership team as we continue to lay the groundwork to take back the Senate and the White House in 2020."
The DNC faced several major controversies during the 2016 presidential election and has since then established a series of reforms that range from changing its rules on the superdelegates' role during the nomination process to increasing transparency between the organization and all Democratic presidential candidates. After the historic wins of the 2018 midterm election, the DNC is hoping to keep that energy going into 2020.
"As we head into one of the most important elections of our lifetime, we are building a world class team in order to beat Donald Trump and elect Democrats up and down the ballot," DNC Chair Tom Perez said in a statement to Refinery29. "Rachana, Waikinya, and Reyna bring a wealth of knowledge to the party and we are lucky to have them on our team. Their work will be felt far outside the building as we continue to strengthen our party and build on the victories from the last two years."