The Scene
PITTSBURGH — It was Ken Martin’s “fourth or fifth” trip to Pennsylvania since becoming chair of the Democratic National Committee, for an election he felt good about.
The 52-year-old Minnesotan felt “confident,” in general, about how his party would do on Tuesday, after a year of being asked what was wrong with the Democrats. He had just been to New Jersey, where he expected Rep. Mikie Sherrill to be elected governor, and Virginia, where Democrats were so confident of winning that they’d called a special session to draw more favorable congressional maps.
“They obviously understood the assignment,” said Martin, who expected California Democrats’ own gerrymandering measure to pass on Tuesday. “If the Republicans continue with this nonsense, this unconstitutional power grab that they have been doing in places like Texas, the Democratic Party is not going to just roll over and play dead.”
In Pennsylvania, Martin was helping the state party’s effort to retain three state Supreme Court justices in an up-or-down vote. “Conservatives are going to try to buy these seats,” he told Semafor at a coffee shop near the Allegheny County Democrats’ daily phone bank office, on Wednesday. Victory would ensure Democratic control of the court through the next few elections, just a year after Republicans won every statewide race in Pennsylvania.
Since winning the DNC job in February, Martin’s party has flipped three state legislative seats in special elections and been buffeted by questions about its strategy and message. Critics are still questioning his tactics, his fundraising, and the contents of an in-progress review of the party’s 2024 election mistakes.
But his raw thoughts at party meetings are no longer being recorded and leaked to reporters, and the party has invested in each competitive Nov. 4 race, even as paying off debt from Kamala Harris’ 2024 campaign saps its resources.
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The View From KEN MARTIN
In a 30-minute interview, Martin defended how the party has been managing its internal divisions, and pushed back at Republicans who have accused Democrats of embracing violence and radical politics. The American Action Network, an arm of the House GOP, had just announced a $5 million buy across swing seats that condemned Democrats for accusing the president and his allies of embracing “fascism.” Martin said the word was fitting.
“I’ve been very vocal, after Charlie Kirk died, that there’s no place for political violence,” said Martin. “But calling out a fascist regime for what it is? There’s no doubt in my mind, when you look at other fascist regimes around the world, over our history, that this not only has the hallmarks of a fascist regime, it is a fascist regime. The Constitution is being shredded before our eyes. The rule of law does not seem to matter anymore. The idea of due process in this country has been completely ripped away from people who are US citizens.”
When Republicans defend the “unitary executive,” he said, it means “they want an authoritarian or a fascist to control this country.”
Martin had been tested on the “violence” question. After National Review published a set of 2022 texts from Virginia attorney general nominee Jay Jones in which he muses to a colleague about shooting the state House speaker, no Democrat told Jones to quit the race. That was a change from how Democrats had handled comparable situations before: For example, in 2019, Martin’s predecessor, Tom Perez, had urged then-Gov. Ralph Northam to quit, after photos of him wearing blackface resurfaced.
“I’ve always felt that it’s not my job to say who should be in races or not. That’s up to the voters,” Martin said, comparing that stance to the DNC’s non-involvement in contested primaries.
“It’s not as if I don’t have serious, serious objections to the comments that were made, both by Jay Jones and [Maine Democrat] Graham Platner. Their comments were indefensible, offensive, hurtful. But it’s not up to me to decide whether or not they’re disqualifying. Democrats actually do call out our elected officials on their offensive comments. We do demand that they apologize. I don’t see that happening from the Republican Party, ever.”
Republicans have also promised to use New York mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani against Democrats around the country, linking them to his democratic socialist views. Martin was skeptical.
“They tried that in Minnesota with [Rep.] Ilhan Omar and [Minnesota Attorney General] Keith Ellison,” he said. “Didn’t impact any of our other candidates or those races. I’m not worried about that, to be honest with you. The Republicans always try to create boogeymen, right? And I have no doubt they’ll try to do that again. But I think voters are smarter than that, you know? I’m not worried about it one bit. If that’s where they want to focus their energy, we’re going to be focusing our energy on the fact that the Republicans and Donald Trump haven’t done anything to improve people’s lives.”
The GOP criticism of Mamdani has gone far beyond his views on Israel. Martin has been navigating that inside the party, too. At this summer’s DNC meeting in Minneapolis, he pulled a resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, after some delegates protested and their own resolution calling for a Palestinian state was defeated. His compromise was proposing a committee to deal with the Gaza question, which he said would be formed after this election.
“Obviously there’s lots of interest from lots of people and groups and organizations,” he said. “It’s obviously a conversation that we want to make sure has the right representation from sort of all the various sides of this.”
There were other distractions in Minneapolis. The meeting, like the last two DNC platforms, began with a “land acknowledgment” that recognized Indigenous tribes. Conservatives had mocked that; what was the point of Democrats doing invocations that would be ripped apart on Fox News?
“I think it’s important for us to not give up on our values, right?” said Martin. “We believe that this party, this country, should be inclusive — that we should stand up for the rights of all people. But we can walk and chew gum at the same time. As much as we’ve always been the party of the working class and the poor, we’ve also been the party that’s fought against discrimination and hatred and bigotry, and we can do both.”
On the left, Martin has faced some criticism for shuffling around DNC roles, making the presidents of AFSCME and the American Federation of Teachers into at-large members — roles they quickly resigned, after years in more prominent party positions.
“You’d have to ask [AFT President] Randi [Weingarten] and [AFSCME President] Lee [Saunders] why they decided to resign,” he said. “I didn’t kick them off. They’re certainly welcome if they want to come back into the DNC. For whatever reason they’ve decided to put their efforts elsewhere. It doesn’t mean that we don’t support the work of AFSCME or AFT and the great work that they’re doing to stand up and fight for their union members and to fight for workers, right? I have nothing but respect for both of them, and I think they’re doing great work.”
He saw no real rift with labor over the American Federation of Government Employees urging Democrats to end the shutdown. “I haven’t seen any strain at this point,” he said. “I will tell you that the Democrats didn’t want this shutdown.”
He sees no strain with former President Joe Biden, either. In March, NBC News reported that the former president had offered to help the DNC in any way he could. Biden has been absent from the campaign trail since then, but Martin said that Biden had lent his name to some fundraising appeals, and that he has been restricted by treatments for cancer. Biden will make his first post-presidency Democratic Party event appearance next Friday, at a Nebraska Democrats’ fundraiser.
“There’s a lot of different ways that he could help, whether it’s showing up at events like that in Omaha, or, helping on the fundraising side, or frankly, from time to time, making sure that his opinions are known on critical issues facing this country,” said Martin. “There’s lots of ways that he can help. There’s lots of ways Vice President Harris has already helped.”
But they were off the trail. Barack Obama has been the only former president campaigning for Democrats before Nov. 4, and Martin plans to be with him on Saturday, when he comes to help Sherrill in New Jersey.
David’s view
When Martin took this job, he agreed to its unpleasant, sin-eating responsibilities. He gets blamed when the party loses (which it hasn’t, under him, yet) and other people get credit when it wins. He’s pushed back the “2024 autopsy” (not what he calls it) until after next month’s election, but Democrats interviewed for it or briefed on it have already talked about what it’ll probably contain.
It’s a little ironic, because Martin wants no part of the debate over whether the party should shift left or right after its defeat. His goal is a sturdy, well-funded national organization and network of state parties that doesn’t need to rely on third party organizations or consultants, who he sees as having made bigger mistakes last year.
Notable
- In Axios, Alexander Solender and Marc Caputo report on the half-dozen labor leaders who have urged Democrats to vote for government funding and end the shutdown without conditions.