The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has been grappling with infighting and a decline in donations in recent months, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
DNC Chair Ken Martin, who was elected in February, has overseen slowing fundraising from major donors, the NYT reported. Some top DNC officials have even floated the idea of whether it may be necessary to start borrowing money to continue paying the bills, according to the NYT.
Six anonymous sources told the NYT that major Democratic donors have been extremely slow to donate to the party this year. Additionally, two anonymous sources told the outlet that senior DNC officials have even floated the idea of potentially borrowing money in the coming months.
Rufus Gifford, who served as the finance chairman of former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign, told the NYT that Democrats “need to come together and focus on the issues at hand.”
“What they are seeing is headline after headline of incompetence and infighting, and I think that is a real problem not just for the DNC but for the larger Democratic brand,” Gifford told the outlet. “We need to come together and focus on the issues at hand. That’s got to happen now. And I mean today. And if that can’t happen, we need to shift course.”
Democratic Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan told the NYT that the recent drama in the DNC was “worse than some high school student council drama.”
Martin told the NYT that he believes many major Democratic donors were “frustrated” by the results of the 2024 elections.
“People invested more money than they ever had before, they dug deeper than they ever had, and they are quite frustrated by the result,” Martin told the outlet. “They want answers. I don’t take it personally. I wasn’t in charge.”
“I know there’s a lot of people that are carrying grudges, that are still litigating the campaign that their person didn’t win,” Martin told the NYT. “I am not one of those people. There’s no sense of living in the past. I have no enemies other than Donald Trump and the Republican Party.”
The NYT’s report comes shortly after David Hogg, a gun control activist who was elected to serve as one of the DNC’s vice chairs in February, sparked massive backlash in the Democratic Party after he announced in April plans to primary incumbent Democrats. On June 11, the DNC voted to remove Hogg from his vice chair position and require him to run again due to a procedural complaint, Politico first reported.
On June 8, leaked audio revealed that Martin expressed concern about Hogg’s ability to lead the party due to the infighting his decisions had ignited, according to Politico. Martin notably paused twice and appeared to choke up during the recording, according to the outlet.
Moreover, Randi Weingarten, the longtime head of the American Federation of Teachers, and Lee Saunders, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, announced they were leaving the DNC, the NYT reported on Sunday. Both of the union leaders had backed Martin’s main opponent in the DNC chair election earlier this year, Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler, according to the NYT.
Still, some Democrats have defended Martin’s leadership, including Maria Cardona, a longtime DNC member, who told the NYT that he “does the work” and “rolls up the sleeves.”
“Everything that Ken has done, regardless of the drama that it has caused, has been the right moves,” Cardona told the outlet. “He does the work. He rolls up the sleeves.”
A DNC spokesperson did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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