Democrats are quickly losing confidence in new national committee chairman Ken Martin, according to a new report Thursday.
Members of the Democratic National Committee spoke to Politico and described their frustration with Martin, who became chairman four and a half months ago after Democrats’ 2024 loss of the Senate and White House while Republicans held onto the House of Representatives.
Democrats are increasingly worried about his ability to lead the party back to victory against a strong Donald Trump-centric GOP.
One DNC member called Martin “weak and whiny” while another called him “invisible” and said that Martin’s “early tenure has been disappointing.”
Martin has faced criticism for how he handled an internal battle that went public with 25-year-old Parkland High School shooting survivor David Hogg, who was elected as vice chairman of the DNC before he was ousted after he launched an effort to run primary challenges against veteran incumbent Democrats.
Politico later published audio of Martin telling the gun-rights activist Hogg “you essentially destroyed any chance I have to show the leadership that I need to. So it’s really frustrating.”
“We’re in the most serious existential crisis with Donald Trump both at home and abroad — and with the biggest political opportunity in a decade,” Rahm Emanuel, former chief of staff to Barack Obama, told Politico.
Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago, has hinted at potentially running for president.
“And the DNC has spent six months on a firing squad in the circle, and can’t even fire a shot out,” Emanuel said. “And Trump’s world is a target-rich environment.”
Martin’s problems run deeper than a clash with Hogg. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union president Lee Saunders quit their roles in the DNC.
One Democratic strategist with ties to labor said ,“The DNC is weaker than I have ever seen it. … They have shown zero ability to chart a post-24 vision for Democrats.” The strategist said labor could not “in good faith continue to rubber-stamp what was going on with the DNC.”
But Martin disputed the characterization of his tenure.
“I ran and won the race for DNC chair to get the DNC out of DC — because too many people in DC want to point fingers, and play the blame game,” he said in a statement to Politico. “They want to win irrelevant arguments, with no strategy involved, but the one strategic thing that makes us relevant is winning elections. I was elected chair to help our party win again, and we are.”
A former chairman of Minnesota’s Democratic Party, Martin had developed a reputation of winning when he helped flip both houses in the state legislature and flipped formerly red districts in Minnesota. He had the backing of Gov. Tim Walz, the state’s governor and the former Democratic nominee for vice president.
Martin beat out Ben Wikler, the former head of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, to lead the party after many criticized the tenure of Jaime Harrison, the former DNC chairman.
““My perspective is some of this is the normal thing that happens,” Harrison told Politico. “You have a contentious DNC race and sometimes feelings get a little raw. But then people really start to focus on what’s at hand.”
But some criticized Martin’s approach to the DNC’s rules and bylaws committee. Martin purged 15 people on the committee, 13 of whom had not voted for him.
Some defended Martin’s approach and said he should have his own team.
“Many people get comfortable with the status quo,” James Soufkis, part of Martin’s “People’s Cabinet” at the DNC. “I would argue that the status quo is far riskier than transforming the DNC and, in the process, perhaps ruffling the feathers of some individuals who prefer the status quo.”
Martin’s woes come as Democrats begin planning the calendar for the 2028 primaries, and, more pressingly, begin to run against the Republican trifecta in 2026.
