‘The DNC is weaker than I have ever seen it,’ Democratic strategist says
Democratic National Committee chairman Ken Martin, who vowed to unify Democrats when he was elected four months ago, is facing a wave of internal backlash as critics say he has failed to lead a fractured party reeling from its 2024 election defeats.
One DNC member called Martin “weak and whiny,” while another said that the chairman has been “invisible” and that his “early tenure has been disappointing,” according to a Politico report.
“The DNC is weaker than I have ever seen it,” a Democratic strategist with close ties to labor unions told Politico. “They have shown zero ability to chart a post-’24 vision for Democrats.”
Former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel (D.), who is weighing a run for president in 2028, echoed the DNC members’ frustration.
“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,” Emanuel 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.”
The turmoil inside the DNC made news in April, when then-vice chair David Hogg pledged $20 million to fund primary challenges against “ineffective, asleep-at-the-wheel” Democratic incumbents. Hogg was ousted last week on procedural grounds and has said he won’t run again.
The crisis escalated this week with the resignations of two of the party’s most influential labor leaders: American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees president Lee Saunders. Both quit their DNC posts in protest of the party’s direction under Martin.
“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,” Weingarten wrote in a letter to Martin.
Some Democratic lawmakers in recent days have also voiced their disappointment with the DNC under Martin’s leadership. Following Weingarten’s resignation, Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.) said he wanted “a party with a big tent and inclusion, not subtraction and pushing people out,” while Rep. Mark Pocan (Wis.) wrote on X that he would “love to have a day go by” without the DNC doing “something embarrassing & off message.”
