State Sen. James Skoufis announces candidacy for DNC chair

State Sen. James Skoufis announced Saturday his candidacy to become the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

The senator, representing most of Orange County and the Catskills, touted his bipartisan appeal in an announcement video posted to his X account.

“I’ve won on tough Trump turf three times. I’ve won when governors face red waves, all while bringing the Democratic big tent together and never sacrificing our values,” Skoufis said.

“When you outperform the top of the ticket by 24% you know a thing or two about brass tacks campaigns,” he added, taking a swipe at Vice President Harris’ election night catastrophe.

Skoufis would face off against Ken Martin, chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, and Martin O’Malley, a former Maryland governor and past Democratic presidential candidate.

The election to replace outgoing chairman Jaime Harrison will be held Feb. 1.

If he wins, Skoufis will be confronted with a demoralized party and the wreckage of Harris’ campaign, which spent $1.5 billion in 15 weeks and is believed to be 20 million in debt.

Top Democratic insiders, like James Carville, have called for an audit of the campaign’s books.

But Skoufis has already picked up support among some New York lawmakers, including Republican council leader Joe Borelli.

“Skoufis routinely outperforms the GOP in a GOP suburban/rural district. (Which is 3x the size of Mayor Pete’s city when he ran for chair in 2019. Worked out for him btw) The DNC could probably use his advice right now,” Borelli said in an X post.