Jehmu Greene, a Fox News analyst, immigration activist and social entrepreneur, announced her candidacy for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee on Thursday evening.
“After an historic year and devastating losses up and down the ballot, it is women who are stepping up to protect the rights and freedom of every American,” Greene wrote in an email message to the DNC’s 447 voting members.
“We are organizing, taking action, and marching to demonstrate our opposition to the next administration’s hurtful, hateful policies,” she added. “It is critical that the debate over the future of the Democratic Party reflects this energy — transforming the party and the country cannot be done without us.”
In addition to her work as a commentator on Fox News, Greene is a co-founder of Define American, the immigration rights organization headed by Jose Antonio Vargas.
Greene is the daughter of undocumented immigrants and grew up in Austin, Texas. She cited her background in the email announcing her candidacy.
“As a young girl in a city with a woman serving three terms as mayor, I learned something early on about women and politics: we belong there,” she wrote.
Greene is the latest entrant into a DNC race that has attracted an unusually large field of candidates. Her six competitors are Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Labor Secretary Tom Perez, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, New Hampshire Democratic Party chair Ray Buckley, South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Jaime Harrison, and Idaho Democratic Party executive director Sally Boynton-Brown.
The Huffington Post will host a debate between the DNC candidates on Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
The Huffington Post is hosting a DNC debate on Jan. 18 at the Jack Morton Auditorium at George Washington University. Follow HuffPost Politics on Facebook to watch it live at 7 p.m. EST. We’ve created petitions below for each of the declared candidates; sign one if you’re a supporter of a particular candidate. We’ll announce the total level of support for each candidate at the beginning of the debate, and again at the end. (You can click through to each to see the current level of support.)
