Following the Democratic Party's loss to the Republicans in the 2024 United States presidential election, along with other defeats, Harrison announced that he would not seek a second term as chair of the party in 2025.[3][4]
After graduating from Yale in 1998, Harrison worked as a teacher for a year at his former high school.[8] In 1999, he was appointed chief operating officer of College Summit, a non-profit organization that helps low-income youth find a path to college and a career.[9][10] He earned his Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center in 2004.[11]
In May 2013, Harrison became the chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party. He is the first African American to have served in this role.[6][18]
In 2018, Harrison published the book Climbing the Hill: How to Build a Career in Politics and Make a Difference (ISBN - 9780399581946), with journalist Amos Snead.[19]
Democratic National Committee
Harrison declared his candidacy for chairperson of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in the February 2017 election.[20][21] He defended his eight-year record at the Podesta Group, saying, "It's how I pay back the $160,000 of student loan debt."[22] Harrison ended his bid for DNC chair on February 23, 2017, and endorsed Tom Perez.[23]
Harrison accepted a position as associate chairman and counselor of the DNC, where he implemented a program called "Every ZIP Code Counts." The program supplied each state party with $10,000 per month so long as the state party did an analysis of its strengths and weaknesses for its internal operations.[24]
Following President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election, Harrison was nominated by Biden to be the chair of the DNC, succeeding Tom Perez.[25] DNC members elected him on January 21, 2021.[26]
Harrison filed paperwork on February 7, 2019, to challenge Senator Lindsey Graham by running for his seat in the U.S. Senate in the 2020 election. No Democrat has won a statewide election in South Carolina since 2006.[29] Harrison launched his campaign on May 29, 2019.[2] Economist and Democrat Gloria Bromell Tinubu announced her run for the seat in May 2019. In January 2020, Tinubu dropped out of the race, endorsing Harrison.[30] With Harrison unopposed, the Democratic primary for US Senate was cancelled, and he became the Democratic nominee on June 9, 2020.[31]
Harrison and Graham participated in a debate with no audience (due to the COVID-19 pandemic) that was hosted by Allen University on October 3, 2020.[32] A debate originally scheduled for October 9 was changed to feature separate, televised interviews after Graham refused to be tested for COVID-19 preceding the scheduled debate.[33]
In the third quarter of 2020, Harrison raised $57 million, the largest quarterly total by a U.S. Senate candidate ever, breaking Beto O'Rourke's record in the 2018 Texas Senate election.[34] He also raised the most ever by a U.S. Senate candidate, beating another record set by O'Rourke.[35]
Harrison called for expansion of Medicaid[5] and expanded coronavirus relief.[5] During the 2020 Senate election, Harrison criticized Graham for attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act.[36] Harrison also supports the legalization of cannabis.[37]
Harrison lost the election to Graham by over ten percentage points, garnering 44.2% of the vote compared to Graham's 54.5%.[38] The day after the election, Niall Stanage of The Hill stated that Harrison ran a spirited challenge but in the end, Graham "prevailed easily".[39]
^Glantz, Tracy (January 15, 2020). ""Gloria Tinubu bows out, supports Jaime Harrison for U.S. Senate seat"". The State Newspaper. Retrieved December 1, 2022.
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