Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin has named New York State Senator James Skoufis of Orange County to the DNC’s "People’s Cabinet."

The initiative, launched in April, elevates "issue experts and policy leaders" within the Democratic Party to lead pushback against President Donald Trump’s Administration.

Skoufis represents New York's 42nd Senate District in the lower Hudson Valley, which includes the city of Middletown, the town of New Windsor and West Point.

In the role, he will focus on "engaging and energizing young, rural, union and red state voters" and spoke to the Young Democrats of America Spring Meeting this weekend as his first engagement as part of the cabinet.

"The People’s Cabinet" will engage in press briefings, participate in town hall meetings across the country, push back against what they describe as misinformation coming out of the Trump administration and strategize next steps for the party. Skoufis joins former Labor Secretaries Robert Reich and Julie Su, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and former U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp as fellow members.

“Under Chairman Martin’s leadership, I know our party can and will return to a dominant position. We will start winning again in districts like the one I’ve long represented by providing a clear, bullshit-free, populist contrast to the selfish, destructive, anti-American agenda being advanced by Donald Trump,” Skoufis said. "Democrats will be working non-stop to demonstrate the party will fight like hell for Americans, showing up in communities that have traditionally been left behind and rooms where folks might not always agree with us. It’s an honor to be named to the People’s Cabinet by Chairman Martin and I look forward to working with the DNC to bring an end to the national Trump nightmare and ensure the Democratic Party’s and America’s best days are ahead.”

Skoufis has served in the state Legislature for 13 years and won by 14 points in a district where Trump beat Vice President Kamala Harris by 10 points. He has been outspoken when it comes to the party’s efforts to reshape itself in a second Trump era, and in December announced his own bid for DNC chair, branding himself as an "outsider" who knows how to win.

At the time, he said on X:

"We’ve been running the same stale, inside-the-Beltway playbook driven by the same, tired, inside-the-Beltway voices."

Skoufis dropped out of the race in mid-January and endorsed Martin. 

"While the Trump administration stacks his cabinet with billionaire donors and Fox News hosts, Democrats are holding them accountable for their attacks on working families with real champions for the people,” said Martin. “Senator Skoufis is a strong, emerging voice on issues that reach important parts of our coalition."