history as well as one of the highest vote-getters on a Minnesota ballot. Martin later served as the Executive Director of WIN Minnesota, a Minnesota-based donor collaborative that helped develop, fund and direct independent expenditures during the 2010 election cycle. After the election, Governor Mark Dayton tapped Martin to direct Dayton's successful recount effort, ushering in Minnesota's first Democratic Governor in 24 years. Following the successful 2010 campaign, Governor Mark Dayton asked Martin to serve as the Chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party where he was elected unanimously in February 2011. In 2017, Martin was elected by his peers throughout the nation as the President of the Association of State Democratic Committees and became a Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee. Minnesota DFL Party Chair Martin is currently serving his 6th term as chairman of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), the Minnesota branch of the Democratic Party. He has held this post since 2011—making him the longest-serving chairman in the 75-year history of the DFL. When Martin was elected DFL Party Chair in 2011, he inherited a state party deeply in debt following significant election losses including losing the majority in the State Senate for the first time in 40 years, the majority in the House of Representatives, and one of the longest held Democratic seats in Congress in MN-08 with the defeat of Congressman Jim Oberstar. The DFL won in the 2012 Minnesota election, gaining back majorities in both the state House and state Senate. In this election, Minnesota became the first state to defeat a Constitutional Amendment to ban same-sex marriage and stopped a Voter ID Amendment. Plus, Congressman Rick Nolan gained the MN-08 Congressional seat. The 2014 cycle brought additional success as the Minnesota DFL reelected, by large margins, two office holders in Governor Mark Dayton and U.S. Senator Al Franken who each won their first elections by less than 1% of the vote. During the 2016 elections, Minnesota was one of only two Midwestern states to vote for the Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. In addition, despite losses of rural congressional seats throughout the country, the Minnesota DFL won all three of its rural congressional races by reelecting Congressman Tim Walz (MN-01), Congressman Collin Petersen (MN-07), and Congressman Rick Nolan (MN-08). In 2018, the Minnesota DFL elected Tim Walz as Governor, marking the first time the DFL has had three consecutive terms in the Governor's office.