Newly elected Democratic chairman begins national tour in Western Pa.

In his first road trip as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin made Western Pennsylvania his first stop, meeting Tuesday morning with steelworkers in Pittsburgh and campaigning in the afternoon with a state House candidate in McKeesport.

Martin said the two stops signify what’s most important to him in his new role as national party chairman: winning back working-class voters Democrats lost to Republicans in recent years and hotly contesting every race, no matter how big or small the office might be.

“I’m only on Week No. 3 of my time as chair, and the first place I’ve visited is Western Pennsylvania. That should signify to people that our party is not going to cede any ground to the Republicans,” Martin, who was elected national party chairman Feb. 1, said during his McKeesport stop.

President Donald Trump carried every Western Pennsylvania county except for Allegheny County in the November election. That said, the state House candidate Martin was in town stumping for, Dan Goughnour, is running in a legislative district in Allegheny County that has been represented by five Democrats since it was created in 1969.

Goughnour, a McKeesport police officer, is facing White Oak Republican Charles Davis in a special election on March 25. The winner will replace former state Rep. Matt Gergely, D-McKeesport, who died in January.

Maintaining the Democrats’ winning streak in the district, and the party’s narrow majority in the state House, make the race a critical one, Martin said. But Martin, a long-time state party chairman from Minnesota, said all races matter in determining the party’s future.

In an appearance Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Martin said, “So many parts of our coalition left us this last election cycle, right? We know that, from Latino voters to working-class households, to young voters, to women. You can go down the list. The only two groups that we overperformed with in the last election cycle were wealthy households and college-educated voters. That’s a damning indictment on the Democratic Party.”

Addressing the loss of working-class voters during his campaign stop Tuesday, Martin said, “Our party is not dead, but we’ve got a ton of work to do … The way we win back working people is making sure that we’re competing and contesting every single race up and down the ballot, (showing them) that every race matters, every public policy arena matters, that we will fight for our values at every single level.”

Martin said another focal point of his tenure will be fighting Trump administration policies at every turn.

“Hard-working Americans are suffering because (the Trump administration refuses) to focus on the issues that Americans want and need right now, which is how to afford their lives, everything from housing costs to gas to grocery prices, which are all up now under the Trump administration,” Martin said.

The Allegheny County GOP declined to comment on Martin’s appearances.

In addition to Pennsylvania, Martin’s planned multistate tour is scheduled to include stops in Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri — all of which, excluding Illinois, were carried by Trump in November.