Intense infighting has reportedly erupted within the Democratic National Committee (DNC) over concerns of its new chair’s ability to unify the party and push back against the Trump administration.
Several DNC members spoke to Politico in a Thursday report and shed light on the seeming turmoil brewing within the committee’s ranks. Many expressed their frustration with Ken Martin, who they described as distracted and ineffective in bringing the party back together following its 2024 electoral losses.
One DNC member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described Martin as “weak and whiny” while another added that his “early tenure has been disappointing” and that he’s been “invisible.”
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Martin, who was elected as chair in February this year, previously served as the vice chair of the DNC and was formerly the chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
“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 President Barack Obama’s first White House chief of staff, told Politico. “And the DNC has spent six months on a firing squad in the circle, and can’t even fire a shot out. And Trump’s world is a target-rich environment.”
Members said Martin and his supporters are more concerned with the party’s internal civil war as opposed to formulating a plan to beat Trump, per Politico’s sources.
Several high-ranking DNC members have notably left the committee in recent weeks.
On June 11, David Hogg, the committee’s former vice chair, announced that he wouldn’t be running for the position again over “fundamental disagreement about the role.”
“It’s okay to have disagreements,” Hogg wrote in a statement on X. But, he continued, “what isn’t okay is allowing this to remain our focus when there is so much more we need to be focused on.”
Randi Weingarten and Lee Saunders, leaders of two of the country’s largest labor unions, also quit their roles in the DNC earlier this week, citing issues with Martin’s tenure.
“While I am proud to be a Democrat, I appear to be out of step with the leadership you are forging,” Weingarten, the leader of the American Federation of Teachers, told Martin in her resignation letter which was obtained by The New York Times. “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.”
Martin’s camp have maintained that the chair is focused on issues that will benefit the party’s chances at winning elections again, like securing funding. They also argue that those in disagreement with Martin’s leadership are a minority and not the majority, per Politico.
“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,” Martin told the outlet in a statement. “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.”
In a statement to the Daily Beast, Martin added: “Some people in D.C. just want to win an argument, but I’m focused on winning elections.”
“This year, Democrats have an unprecedented track record of 32 wins and over-performances in races across the country. That’s what I was elected to do,” he continued. Martin went to on to stress the importance of focusing on “what works” like investing finances into state parties and reaching voters in red districts.
“The American people don’t care about beltway chatter, and neither do I,” Martin continued. “They want to know that Democrats are fighting for them. Under my leadership, that’s what the DNC is doing.”
A longtime DNC member, Maria Cardona, also came to Martin’s defense in a Wednesday report published by The New York Times, saying that he’s been doing all the “right moves.”
“Everything that Ken has done, regardless of the drama that it has caused, has been the right moves,” Cardona said of Martin. “He does the work. He rolls up the sleeves,” she continued, pointing to recent Democrat wins at special elections.
Still, several Democrats have continued to express their frustration, including Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan, who told The Times: “This is worse than some high school student council drama.”
