The News
Top Democrats in Washington are not happy about the state of their national party committee — yet most of them see Chair Ken Martin’s job as safe.
Martin’s problems are well-documented: The Democratic National Committee is broke, its new presidential primary calendar is frustrating some high-profile members, and discontent with his leadership is so high that a well-known fundraiser penned a Substack this week to declare there’s “no saving” Martin’s chairmanship.
The party’s most influential members may wince when they compare that picture to the Republican National Committee’s $128 million in the bank. But an ugly ouster of Martin at a crucial moment, barely three months before the midterms, doesn’t make sense to them either.
Getting rid of Martin “100 days from an election? I don’t think that’s the solution right now,” said Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., one of the party’s best fundraisers and a vice chair at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
“We have a real opportunity here to win a lot of races across the country,” Kelly added. “The environment’s good. I saw they have fundraising challenges. Fundraising challenges can be addressed. I think he’s got the ability to do that. And we’ve got several months to go.”
In other words, this isn’t 2016, when the party forced out then-DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz during its convention. Democrats don’t see a viable successor to Martin ready to lead the overhaul that they know their party organization ahead of the 2028 cycle. No ambitious Democrat has put out feelers about replacing him.
Former DNC Vice Chair David Hogg, whom Democratic pundit James Carville suggested as a replacement, told Semafor that “it’s hard to imagine who would want the job.”
And removing Martin wouldn’t be easy; it requires a majority vote by the 448 members of the DNC.
So Democrats are ready to ride it out until a midterm election that, thanks in large part to the low popularity of President Donald Trump, could deliver them the House and possibly the Senate. They’re also looking competitive in gubernatorial races in states that Democrats haven’t won in a long time, like Iowa, Ohio and Georgia.
As Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., put it about Martin: “The DNC has many problems that are not him.”
“Obviously there are more things that they can be doing,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., “He was dealt a very difficult hand, and I think we should continue to give him a chance.”
Former Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler told Semafor he’s not interested in the job either. Wikler ran against Martin for the chairmanship, with the backing of many congressional Democratic leaders.
“It is very tough to pull our big, fractious party together,” Wikler said on a Sunday night stop of his book tour in western Wisconsin. “As frustrating as things may be with the national party, we can still change things below. It makes all the difference in the world, even if no one finds out about it.”
Know More
The perception that the DNC bungled its “autopsy” of the 2024 election, on top of operational worries, already had Martin on the outs with many rank-and-file Democratic lawmakers. A smattering of House Democrats have called for Martin to step aside, like Reps. Marc Veasey of Texas and Sam Liccardo of California, but that angst is contained.
While many Democratic lawmakers don’t want to throw the national party organization into pre-election chaos with little obvious upside, quite a few of them privately believe the dam could break soon after the midterms, as the presidential election cycle starts to ramp up.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is among those reiterating support for Martin, though Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene told CNN on Tuesday that Martin understands the “need to do better.”
The DNC’s fortunes aren’t totally separate from the rest of the party: It sent more than $12 million a piece to both the party’s Senate and House campaign arms during the last two elections. The committee hasn’t sent any significant cash to the DSCC or the DCCC this cycle so far.
Even so, no senators interviewed for this story joined the calls for Martin to go, even as they tweaked him for various grievances. Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said he doesn’t think the “DNC ever has money” and said the scoreboard will tell the tale about Martin’s tenure.
“The way you determine how well you do is if you win. So that comes in November,” Gallego said.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said she gets along “personally fine” with Martin but that he hasn’t responded forcefully enough to her request that the DNC help stop outside spending from determining primaries. She just returned from Michigan, where AIPAC is spending big for Rep. Haley Stevens, D-MIch., against Warren-backed Abdul El-Sayed.
“My big issue with the DNC has been to urge them to get more aggressive about beating dark money out of the primaries,” Warren said. She and other senators sent Martin a letter urging him to help stamp out outside groups’ influence in the party’s contests. “We got some sign of support, but no meaningful change.”
Then there’s the new presidential nominating calendar, which shortchanged New Hampshire, one of the Democratic primaries’ few bright spots during the Trump era of politics. Republicans are already hitting Senate candidate Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., after his state lost First in the Nation status in the party’s proposed calendar.
“I totally disagree with that. I think that was misguided, and they had South Carolina go first in 2024, and look how that went. That’s a state that is not going to vote Democratic,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.
The DNC declined to comment, pointing to what Martin had already said on the topic — and reporting that Monday was the DNC’s third-best online fundraising day of this year.
Room for Disagreement
“I’m not a member of the Democratic Party,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who nonetheless is among the most sought-after figures in the party whose presidential nod he sought twice.
In 2017, he traveled alongside then-DNC Chair Tom Perez on a speaking tour, and was involved in efforts to rewrite primary rules ahead of the 2020 contest. He hasn’t returned to that role, focusing instead on recruiting and campaigning for candidates who share his positions.
Burgess, Nicholas, and David’s View
Democrats surely would like more institutional money for the midterms. But they can win House as well as Senate and governor’s races without a strong DNC. A wave election would be worth a lot more than the DNC could provide — and individual Democratic candidates are still showcasing fundraising advantages in many key races.
Plus, Democrats probably wouldn’t gain much from trying to get rid of Martin at a time when they’re benefiting from the tension between Republicans and Trump. Making themselves the story would only create new internal disarray and distractions ahead of November.