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Excerpt:Randi Weingarten, longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), resigned from her post within the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Sunday.
In a letter to DNC Chair Ken Martin obtained by Axios, Weingarten declined his offer to continue serving as an at-large member — a position she had held since 2002 — citing ideological divergence with the current direction of the party. “I appear to be out of step with the leadership you are forging,” Weingarten wrote. “I do not want to be the one who keeps questioning why we are not enlarging our tent and actively trying to engage more and more of our communities.”
Her decision follows her public support for Ben Wikler, who unsuccessfully challenged Martin in a contentious DNC leadership election earlier this year. Following that endorsement, Weingarten was removed from the party’s influential Rules and Bylaws Committee.
Weingarten’s departure also comes just days after DNC Vice Chair David Hogg stepped down, criticizing the party’s resistance to generational change. Weingarten had supported Hogg’s plan to launch a political organization aimed at primarying incumbent Democratic lawmakers.
