The Democratic Party is so quick on money that leaders at its headquarters have undertaken a brand new gambit to masks the severity of the issues: asking distributors to not ship payments till after the midterm elections.
The bookkeeping maneuver, which was described by three individuals briefed on it, is the newest signal of economic duress for the Democratic National Committee and its embattled chief as cash troubles threaten to undercut Democratic momentum with 100 days till the midterms.
So a lot goes politically proper for Democrats nowadays. President Trump’s approval is down, gas prices are up and an unpopular war with Iran drags on. But dysfunction and debt inside one in all the get together’s key establishments — which is getting crushed in fund-raising by its Republican counterpart — are creating rising nervousness for prime Democrats.
At the middle is Ken Martin, the 53-year-old get together chairman, who has discovered himself more and more remoted, gripped by the worry that he’ll lose his job and counting on a vanishingly small circle of individuals he trusts, in response to interviews with greater than two dozen Democrats, together with present and former D.N.C. officers and members. Most of them spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate the get together’s troubled state of affairs.
Mr. Martin’s fraying nerves are displaying. In a pique of frustration in early July, he threw his telephone at the desk of a junior aide whereas upbraiding the particular person. The phone-tossing incident resulted in a proper grievance to the D.N.C.’s human sources division.
The fallout from the phone-throwing episode was described by half a dozen individuals aware of the incident, who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to debate inside get together issues. None of them witnessed the encounter, and there was some dispute over how aggressively the telephone was tossed. Mr. Martin was mentioned to have thrown the telephone at the desk, relatively than at the aide.
Mr. Martin later met with D.N.C. human sources officers about his habits, in response to three of the individuals.
The Democratic National Committee declined to touch upon the incident. Mr. Martin declined an interview request. Roger Lau, the govt director of the D.N.C., mentioned in an announcement that the bill-deferral discussions have been “nothing more than standard negotiations with vendors over contracts and payment processes.”
Around the workplace and past, Mr. Martin has taken to creating macabre jokes to colleagues about how lengthy he’ll stay in his publish, regardless that his time period doesn’t finish till 2029. He is pissed off with the tarnished public picture of a celebration that he plainly loves and has devoted his life to — and that continues to be bullish about November given President Trump’s low approval ratings.
But the Democratic Party and its allies are far behind Republicans when it comes to money. Mr. Trump controls a $400 million tremendous PAC, and the Republican National Committee is sitting on practically $130 million. Mr. Martin’s D.N.C. is $2 million in debt.
The committee’s function is not only to assist Democrats win again energy in the midterms, but in addition to steer the get together into the 2028 presidential race, together with by overseeing a new primary calendar whereas organizing debates and a nationwide conference.
Even supporters acknowledge Mr. Martin’s rising sense of paranoia. He confronted the get together’s finance director this spring over what he thought was a budding coup. And earlier than he met with the prime congressional Democrats, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, in mid-July, assurances got to an ally of Mr. Martin’s that the two get together leaders didn’t plan to make use of the gathering to name for the chairman’s resignation.
Mr. Martin was elected final February to a four-year time period by the roughly 450 members of the D.N.C., and solely a vote of the membership itself might push him out.
Trust in Mr. Martin — amongst each donors and get together officers — was sapped by his dealing with of a long-promised post-mortem of the 2024 election. Late final yr, he mentioned he would not release the document. But as criticism mounted, he relented in May and released an incomplete draft that featured searing annotations from the D.N.C. that undermined the report.
In public, Mr. Martin has all however disappeared as a face of the get together on tv ever since a fumbling April look on the liberal podcast Pod Save America, when he confronted questions on why he had not launched the post-mortem. His lone tv interview in latest months was on local news in Erie, Pa.
Now, Mr. Martin is each paralyzed by the thought of leaks and surrounded by them. During a May assembly with the full workers of the D.N.C. days after the draft post-mortem’s launch, he admitted that occasions have been robust and chided the group for revealing to reporters what was occurring inside get together headquarters.
“It pisses me off when I see leaks out of this building,” Mr. Martin mentioned, in response to 4 individuals who heard the remarks. “No more of that shit. No more.”
Mr. Martin mentioned he noticed “a lot of down faces” and “people hanging their heads.” He urged: “Keep your head up. Keep a smile on your face.”
“My success is your success,” he added at one other level in the assembly. “So the weaker I am, the weaker all of you are.”
Mr. Martin has not addressed the complete get together workers since.
This week, he personally drafted an essay of more than 3,000 words defending the state of the D.N.C.’s funds. He held the essay intently, and it was posted collectively by the get together and his private Substack, underneath the @kenmartin287890 deal with, simply after 10 p.m. on Monday.
“We must measure success by power built, not simply dollars retained,” he wrote.
Cash Crunch
None of the get together’s issues are extra acute than cash.
For greater than a decade, the D.N.C. has transferred hundreds of thousands of {dollars} each election to sister committees chargeable for profitable the House and Senate. But the nationwide get together is now so quick on money — even after taking out a $15 million mortgage final yr — that officers have privately conveyed to congressional management that there will probably be no such transfers in 2026.
The important subject of the assembly this month with Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries, together with their prime aides and the chairs of the two congressional marketing campaign arms, was forming an enormous new shared fund-raising account throughout the three nationwide committees — and state events throughout the nation.
Even as the political atmosphere has eroded for Republicans, cash stays a critical concern for Democrats. Republican Party committees are much more flush than Democratic ones — simply as a latest Supreme Court ruling made party cash more important by lifting restrictions on how events can coordinate with campaigns.
Inside the room, Mr. Martin described a proposal during which a lot of the money raised by means of this mega committee — which would come with state events nationwide — can be routed first by means of his committee earlier than being distributed to the congressional get together arms.
At least some concerned noticed the transfer as a bid to inflate the fund-raising figures of Mr. Martin’s struggling committee — and to take credit score for money transfers he couldn’t in any other case afford.
Mr. Martin supplied to do no matter was useful, although the group left with out an settlement. The assembly, which has not been beforehand reported, was described by 5 individuals, together with some in the room, who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate a personal gathering.
New monetary reviews launched this week revealed the depth of the D.N.C.’s monetary gap. The get together is $2 million in debt, whereas the Republican National Committee has $128.5 million in money readily available. The get together that holds the White House nearly all the time raises extra money into its get together coffers, however this yr’s chasm is very massive.
Ahead of the D.N.C.’s July report, there have been indicators of attempting to brighten the look of the books. The committee, as an example, transferred $1 million from an account devoted to the 2028 nationwide conference again to the get together.
Some of the issues are a hangover from 2024. While Vice President Kamala Harris raised report sums that yr, her loss left many massive Democratic donors disillusioned with the get together. Her marketing campaign additionally had hundreds of thousands in debt that the D.N.C. spent a lot of final yr paying off, with Ms. Harris’s help.
Last fall, Mr. Martin despatched $3 million every to Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey for his or her governor’s races, betting that victories would reinvigorate fund-raising for the D.N.C. The $15 million mortgage was timed to permit these transfers.
The D.N.C. has since paid greater than $700,000 in curiosity on that mortgage, averaging greater than $75,000 monthly, federal data present. Party officers at the moment are reckoning with the undeniable fact that they have to start to repay $1.66 million of the mortgage’s principal monthly beginning in January, in response to the mortgage’s phrases.
“Ken needs help — H-E-L-P,” mentioned Donna Brazile, a veteran D.N.C. member who has twice served as performing get together chair. “And if he’s reluctant to say it, I’m here to help him ask. It’s hard. It’s very difficult.”
Tense Talks
The similar day that Mr. Martin spoke at the all-staff assembly in May, he urgently tried to get in contact with the get together’s finance chairman, Chris Korge.
Mr. Korge had been talking with different senior get together officers a couple of potential emergency assembly to debate the get together’s sagging funds. Hearing about the calls, Mr. Martin appeared to worry {that a} coup was afoot.
They related late one Tuesday evening.
“It started off extremely heated,” Mr. Korge recalled of their dialog. “Because he came into that call thinking my intention was motivated to take some sort of action to remove him, and that was the furthest thing from the truth.”
Word of the confrontation, which has not beforehand been reported, unfold throughout the senior ranks of the get together. Mr. Korge now describes it as merely “a family fight” that was resolved amicably by the finish of the name. “I have believed in Ken’s priorities from Day 1 for the party,” he mentioned.
The assembly of prime get together officers that Mr. Korge had needed passed off in Pittsburgh in June. There, they have been offered for the first time with nondisclosure agreements, which Axios has previously reported.
The NDAs have been yet one more signal of Mr. Martin’s narrowing circle of belief.
Strategy Doubts
Before Mr. Martin ascended to the nationwide get together chairmanship in early 2025, he had served for 14 years as the head of the Minnesota Democrats, throughout which period his get together by no means misplaced a statewide race.
Inside the D.N.C., he led the state get together chairs group. The alliances he solid there helped him overcome opposition from distinguished Democrats in Washington, together with Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries, to win the nationwide get together publish.
Mr. Martin knew the new job can be arduous, incessantly making a joke evaluating his function to a hearth hydrant and everybody else to a canine.
But Mr. Martin believes deeply in handing cash and relinquishing energy to the states. He increased their monthly allotments from the nationwide get together, particularly in pink states, and final yr despatched an additional $100,000 to Mississippi Democrats earlier than a particular election that broke a legislative Republican supermajority.
“We were able to — with the extra help our candidates needed — get over the finish line,” mentioned Mikel Bolden, the govt director of the Mississippi Democratic Party, crediting Mr. Martin.
Mr. Martin and his allies incessantly notice that fund-raising has been stronger than the final time the get together was out of energy in 2018.
But some Democrats, each inside and outdoors the committee, are questioning the place precisely all the cash has gone.
The single greatest expense in the Martin period was $7.3 million to purchase the remnants of Ms. Harris’s marketing campaign listing from her failed 2024 bid. Ms. Harris’s political motion committee used the money to cover additional remaining debts.
Mr. Martin’s pledge to extend month-to-month handouts to state events has been the centerpiece of his spending agenda. But his inclusion of the territories has brought on consternation.
Spending from the D.N.C. and an affiliated fund-raising committee for Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Marianas, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa has reached about $840,000 since the starting of final yr, federal data present — excess of in the previous.
None of these territories could have any affect on management of Congress.
