When Ken Martin took over the reins of the Democratic National Committee, the Minnesota native said the party’s mission was to “ignore the noise” as it sought to rise out of the ashes of the 2024 election, reconnect with working-class voters and take the fight to President Trump.
But four months into his tenure, Mr. Martin has struggled to shake the intra-party drama and turmoil, making it more difficult for him, in his own words, to find his sea legs and carry out what he has defined as his singular mission: “to win elections” and “stop this tyrant in the White House.”
Mr. Martin is weathering a series of high-profile departures, weak fundraising, and members who are already losing faith in his ability to lead the party against Mr. Trump and in the upcoming elections.
“I would love to have a day go by that @DNC doesn’t do something embarrassing & off message.” Rep. Marc Pocan, Wisconsin Democrat, recently said on X.
Mr. Martin says his challenges are not the issue.
“The American people don’t care about Beltway chatter, and neither do I – they want to know that Democrats are fighting for them,” Mr. Martin said in a statement. “Under my leadership, that’s what the DNC is doing.”
But the distractions have mounted. Mr. Martin found himself at odds with David Hogg’s attempt to simultaneously serve as a DNC co-chair and leader of a PAC bent on supporting primary challengers against Democrats in safe blue congressional districts that it deems “asleep at the wheel.”
The head of some of the nation’s largest labor unions — Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, and Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — resigned from the DNC after losing their spots on the rules and bylaws committee, which oversees the party’s operations, including the presidential nomination process.
They had backed Mr. Martin’s top rival in the DNC election. Mr. Martin, 51, formerly served as chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. He replaced Jaime Harrison as DNC chair.
Personally, things turned nightmarish last weekend after Mr. Martin awoke to the news of a shooting in Minnesota and later learned two of his longtime friends — former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband — were assassinated in their home.
The news came days after Mr. Hogg’s short-lived stint as DNC co-chair came to an abrupt end, with his actions creating big enough headaches for Mr. Martin that he openly questioned, in a leaked phone call, whether he still wanted the job.
Meanwhile, Politico reported this week that DNC members described Mr. Martin’s early tenure as “weak and whiny” and “invisible.”
The party’s donations are drying up, months after the DNC unveiled a new “historic four-year agreement that will see the DNC invest a total of $1 million per month into all 57 Democratic state and territory parties as part of our ‘organize everywhere, win anywhere strategy,” The New York Times reported.
The latest financial reports showed the DNC started the year with just over $22.1 million in the bank, and closed out April with less than $18 million.
The Republican National Committee, on the other hand, saw its coffers increase from $38 million to over $67 million.
Many Democrats are giving Mr. Martin room to grow into the job and prepare the party for the fall elections in New Jersey and Virginia, which will test the political climate less than a year into Mr. Trump’s second term.
Lamont Bagby, the newly minted chair of the Virginia Democrats, told The Washington Times Thursday that he talked with Mr. Martin earlier in the day about the party’s planned investment in the Old Dominion.
“He has been extremely supportive,” Mr. Bagby said. “Both of us are only a few months into our tenure, but he has been around for a long time, so he knows how the organization should be run.”
Mr. Bagby described the early criticism as “foolishness.”
For his part, Mr. Martin, who has visited 20 states as chair, is spinning things in a positive light, saying the party this year has an “unprecedented track record of 32 wins and over-performances in races across the country.”
“That’s what I was elected to do,” he said. “We have to cut through the noise and focus on what works – investing unprecedented dollars in state parties to win and build power locally, reaching voters on the ground in red districts with 130 town halls, sharpening our messaging and opposition tactics with a 24/7 War Room, and launching an organizing program earlier than the national committee has ever before to win in 2025, 2026, and beyond.”
Former DNC Chair Donna Brazile said Mr. Martin was elected “to reform, rebrand and reinvigorate the Democratic Party.”
“As Party Leader, he has assembled a very impressive team of strategists and consultants to assist with his plans to prepare Democrats for a new era of American politics,” Mr. Brazille said in a text message to The Times. “In addition to creating new tools to reach voters, Ken has also established ties to new influences and others who will enable the DNC to broaden its reach and bring new voters into the political process.”
That sentiment was absent in the June 5 resignation letter from Ms. Weingarten, who told Mr. Martin that she felt “out of step with the leadership you are forging.”
“I do not want to be the one who keeps questioning why we are not enlarging our tent and actively trying to engage more and more of our communities,” Ms. Weingarten said.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.