The CEO of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is leaving the organization after less than a year, NBC News reported Monday.
Jess O’Connell, a longtime Democratic operative, is leaving for personal reasons after joining the group in May, one DNC official told NBC, but O’Donnell didn’t give a specific reason for her departure in an email to DNC staffers Monday.
The DNC has struggled in its fundraising in the past year, while Republicans raked in the cash throughout 2017.
“Rebuilding the party will take time. While it isn’t an easy task, we developed a strategy, we implemented it, and we won races up and down the ballot in 2017,” O’Connell said in a statement to NBC.
{mosads}”While I’ve made the decision to pass the baton, our work remains far from over and under Tom Perez’s leadership and direction, our party will continue to build on the progress we’ve made in 2017,” she continued.
Perez, the DNC chairman, thanked O’Connell for her work in an email to DNC staff, saying the “Democratic Party was broken” when she joined the organization.
O’Connell joined the group as Democrats were still recovering from Hillary Clinton’s surprise loss to President Trump in the 2016 election.
The DNC faced a difficult rebuilding period after divisions emerged between the more progressive members of the party who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Democratic primary and those who backed Clinton.
The group was also rocked by former DNC interim Chairwoman Donna Brazile’s new book, in which she said she found fundraising information she said was proof that the Clinton campaign had rigged the primary in its favor. She later denied that the primary was rigged.
Perez and Sanders launched a unity tour after Perez was elected as DNC chair, and Perez tapped progressive Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who also ran to lead the DNC, as vice chair.