Read Blair Lawton’s vision for making 2017 “the year of party-building” here. The Iowa Democratic Party’s State Central Committee will elect a new chair on January 21. -promoted by desmoinesdem

Today, the Lawton for Chair campaign released a list of 44 public supporters, featuring State Central Committee members, party activists, former state legislative candidates, and organizers.

Blair Lawton, candidate for Iowa Democratic Party chair, continues the series of guest commentaries about how to rebuild. -promoted by desmoinesdem

Over the past month, I have been traveling around the state to talk to party activists about what we as Iowa Democrats need to do in order to start winning again, and what role the state chair should play in that process.

What I heard is that the number one goal of Democrats from the state chair on down should be party-building. In this article, I’d like to offer three suggestions for what that could look like:

We need to support our county parties. Strong county parties are the bedrock of a strong state party.
We need a renewed focus on rural areas. One piece of that is setting the goal of contesting every legislative race.
We need to bring a lot more people back into the IDP. And that means making sure the party is a big tent that welcomes people who are new to the party.