A rising variety of Democrats are calling for Ken Martin to step down as head of the Democratic National Committee, arguing that the party’s debt and the bungled launch of the party’s 2024 election post-mortem make him unfit to guide the committee forward of an important midterm.
But inside the committee, Martin’s core base of supporters — state occasion leaders and rank-and-file members — seems to be sticking beside him.
In interviews, Martin’s supporters stated they agreed with his method to spend more cash early to put money into organizing, new expertise and increase state events, even when it means the occasion is trailing Republicans and has extra money owed than money available.
Supporters have pointed to the party’s wins in 2025 elections and dozens of particular elections as proof his technique is working. And they’ve welcomed the adjustments he’s made to the occasion internally.
“Chair Ken Martin has my full support, 100%,” Jeanna Repass, chair of the Kansas Democratic Party, advised NCS. “I believe that there’s so many metrics to a successful leader beyond just fundraising.”
His allies see complaints about his leadership as an effort to undermine him lower than 100 days earlier than the midterm elections.
“It would be a media circus and a massive distraction for every DNC member — most of whom have prominent places in trying to win these midterms — to deal with a resignation less than 100 days before the midterms,” stated David Atkins, a DNC member from California. “No one who has the best interests of the Democratic Party above factional interests would want to see that happen.”
The New York Times reported on Sunday that Martin has change into more and more paranoid about dropping his job and confronted the party’s finance director, Chris Korge, over a gathering he believed to be an effort to unseat him. The Times reported that Martin had thrown a cellphone at the desk of a junior aide, an incident that led to a gathering with human sources, and that the committee has requested distributors to ship invoices after the election.
A DNC official declined to touch upon the cellphone incident and the battle with Korge. Korge advised the Times the disagreement with Martin was “a family fight” that had been resolved.
At the heart of the alarm over Martin’s tenure is the party’s monetary scenario. Though the DNC has raised $207 million since final January — in comparison with $279 million raised by the Republican National Committee — Democrats ended June with $2 million in debt whereas the RNC had $129 million in money. That hole is much more related after a recent Supreme Court ruling that may permit events and candidates to coordinate.
Critics have raised concerns about the party’s capability to boost sufficient cash to satisfy its commitments and questioned whether or not the DNC will be capable to assist financially in the ultimate months main as much as the midterm election.
“At this point, I think there is no saving Martin’s chairmanship. He is a good man with good intentions but simply not meeting this critical moment,” Rufus Gifford, who served as finance chair for Democrats’ 2024 presidential marketing campaign, which ended with tens of millions in debt, wrote in a latest Substack submit. “As Democrats, the only solution is to acknowledge the problem and fix it. Now.”
Asked for remark, a DNC official famous that they’ve raised more cash to this point than the occasion did over an analogous interval throughout President Donald Trump’s first time period in workplace and have extra donors who’ve given greater than $100,000.
The distinction is that the occasion has been keen to spend the cash as quick — if not sooner — than it’s elevating it.
Last fall, the DNC elevated the quantity it sends state events. Blue states started receiving an extra $5,000 a month, for a complete of $17,500, and pink states acquired a lift of $10,000 a month, for a complete of $22,500.
While some state occasion chairs voted towards Martin in final 12 months’s chair race, the investments have garnered him goodwill, significantly amongst DNC members in much less aggressive states the place events battle to fundraise. State occasion chairs and their vice chairs make up roughly 1 / 4 of the DNC’s membership and can be a key voting bloc in the occasion of a vote to attempt and oust Martin. (The chair additionally selects dozens of at-large DNC members and appoints members to key committees, additional complicating a possible effort to oust him.)
Martin has defended his method, which he argues will assist Democrats win now and construct sustainable infrastructure for future elections. The party’s low money available is a results of the occasion investing early in organizing, expertise and state events, he’s stated.
“That answer may be unsatisfying to people who believe the purpose of a political party is to accumulate the largest possible bank balance until the final days before an election,” Martin wrote in a recent Substack post. “But a party is not a savings account. Its purpose is to build power.”
Critics agree that funding state events is a worthwhile purpose however say the occasion should be capable to elevate sufficient cash to distribute these funds in the long run in addition to fulfill its different core duties. Some have balked at the place the cash goes — all the state events are receiving extra funding below Martin, together with uncompetitive pink states and US territories.
“He’s pissing it away,” stated Adam Jentleson, the head of the Searchlight Institute, a Democratic suppose tank. “It’s not just about raising it, it’s how you spend it, and he’s spending it in an incredibly ineffective way.”
Martin’s allies have attributed a few of the criticisms of his chairmanship to the ongoing argument over how the occasion ought to spend its sources. That debate has pitted state occasion leaders and grassroots organizers who wish to put money into the states towards these they label as consultants who wish to spend the cash on media buys nearer to Election Day.
Jane Kleeb, the chair of the Association of State Democratic Committees and an in depth ally of Martin’s, stated state occasion chairs are pissed off by the deal with the DNC’s money available, which has overshadowed the impression occasion adjustments have had on their states.
“All of that is getting lost because of this kind of consulting class that just cannot get over the fact that they did not get their person in the chair seat,” she stated. “That’s what it feels like to us.”
Martin received the chairmanship final February after years of constructing relationships with rank-and-file DNC members and state occasion leaders by his function as head of the Association of State Democratic Committees. During final 12 months’s marketing campaign, members described a longtime occasion operative who despatched playing cards congratulating newly elected members and vowed to democratize and reform the DNC.
Both Martin’s supporters and detractors agree that considered one of the rockiest elements of his tenure was his dealing with of the launch of the DNC’s autopsy report.
“The point where it was clear he could not continue to do this was after the autopsy release mess, when he failed to understand how important it is that people trust the institution,” stated Amanda Litman, the founding father of the Democratic candidate recruitment group Run for Something.
After spending a lot of 2025 vowing to launch it, Martin stated late final 12 months that the doc wouldn’t come out, prompting months of complaints from Democrats demanding its publication. An incomplete model of the doc was launched in May after NCS obtained a lot of its contents. Martin apologized for “creating an even bigger distraction” by not releasing it.
“It just turned out that not releasing it was bad, releasing it was bad, and he was choosing between bad and worse,” stated Repass, the Kansas chair. “But I think the chair himself would tell you he would have done that differently.”
But Martin has received over Repass and different state occasion leaders — significantly in pink states — with his efforts to put money into and empower state events. Repass stated Kansas Democrats would be capable to rent a year-round organizer with the extra funds.
But even Martin’s allies are conscious that his reform push can learn as insular at a time when Democrats are in search of extra sweeping adjustments.
Kleeb stated that the occasion below Martin has been centered on inside reforms which have, for instance, modified the means committee assignments are made to make it extra egalitarian. While these strikes have curried favor with members who now have a larger say in DNC choices like the latest 2028 presidential main calendar debate, they don’t resonate as deeply with the broader Democratic Party.
“Maybe that’s a strategic mistake that’s been made,” Kleeb stated. “I think because so many of us come from state parties, we are so nuts and bolts focused — that is in our DNA — and that’s a fault of ours.”