(CNN) — A growing number of Democrats are calling for Ken Martin to step down as head of the Democratic National Committee, arguing that the party’s debt and the bungled release of the party’s 2024 election autopsy make him unfit to lead the committee ahead of a crucial midterm.
But within the committee, Martin’s core base of supporters — state party leaders and rank-and-file members — appears to be sticking beside him.
In interviews, Martin’s supporters said they agreed with his approach to spend more money early to invest in organizing, new technology and building up state parties, even if it means the party is trailing Republicans and has more debts than cash on hand.
Supporters have pointed to the party’s wins in 2025 elections and dozens of special elections as evidence his strategy is working. And they’ve welcomed the changes he’s made to the party internally.
“Chair Ken Martin has my full support, 100%,” Jeanna Repass, chair of the Kansas Democratic Party, told CNN. “I believe that there’s so many metrics to a successful leader beyond just fundraising.”
His allies see complaints about his leadership as an effort to undermine him less than 100 days before the midterm elections.
“It would be a media circus and a massive distraction for every DNC member — most of whom have prominent places in trying to win these midterms — to deal with a resignation less than 100 days before the midterms,” said David Atkins, a DNC member from California. “No one who has the best interests of the Democratic Party above factional interests would want to see that happen.”
The New York Times reported on Sunday that Martin has become increasingly paranoid about losing his job and confronted the party’s finance director, Chris Korge, over a meeting he believed to be an effort to unseat him. The Times reported that Martin had thrown a phone at the desk of a junior aide, an incident that led to a meeting with human resources, and that the committee has asked vendors to send invoices after the election.
A DNC official declined to comment on the phone incident and the conflict with Korge. Korge told the Times the disagreement with Martin was “a family fight” that had been resolved.
Alarm over finances
At the center of the alarm over Martin’s tenure is the party’s financial situation. Though the DNC has raised $207 million since last January — compared to $279 million raised by the Republican National Committee — Democrats ended June with $2 million in debt while the RNC had $129 million in cash. That gap is even more relevant after a recent Supreme Court ruling that will allow parties and candidates to coordinate.
Critics have raised concerns about the party’s ability to raise enough money to fulfill its commitments and questioned whether the DNC will be able to help financially in the final months leading up to the midterm election.
“At this point, I think there is no saving Martin’s chairmanship. He is a good man with good intentions but simply not meeting this critical moment,” Rufus Gifford, who served as finance chair for Democrats’ 2024 presidential campaign, which ended with millions in debt, wrote in a recent Substack post. “As Democrats, the only solution is to acknowledge the problem and fix it. Now.”
Asked for comment, a DNC official noted that they’ve raised more money to date than the party did over a similar period during President Donald Trump’s first term in office and have more donors who’ve given more than $100,000.
The difference is that the party has been willing to spend the money as fast — if not faster — than it is raising it.
Last fall, the DNC increased the amount it sends state parties. Blue states began receiving an additional $5,000 a month, for a total of $17,500, and red states got a boost of $10,000 a month, for a total of $22,500.
While some state party chairs voted against Martin in last year’s chair race, the investments have garnered him goodwill, particularly among DNC members in less competitive states where parties struggle to fundraise. State party chairs and their vice chairs make up roughly a quarter of the DNC’s membership and would be a key voting bloc in the event of a vote to try and oust Martin. (The chair also selects dozens of at-large DNC members and appoints members to key committees, further complicating a potential effort to oust him.)
Martin has defended his approach, which he argues will help Democrats win now and build sustainable infrastructure for future elections. The party’s low cash on hand is a result of the party investing early in organizing, technology and state parties, he’s said.
“That answer may be unsatisfying to people who believe the purpose of a political party is to accumulate the largest possible bank balance until the final days before an election,” Martin wrote in a recent Substack post. “But a party is not a savings account. Its purpose is to build power.”
Critics agree that funding state parties is a worthwhile goal but say the party must be able to raise enough money to distribute those funds in the long term as well as fulfill its other core duties. Some have balked at where the money is going — all the state parties are receiving additional funding under Martin, including uncompetitive red states and US territories.
“He’s pissing it away,” said Adam Jentleson, the head of the Searchlight Institute, a Democratic think tank. “It’s not just about raising it, it’s how you spend it, and he’s spending it in an incredibly ineffective way.”
State chairs decry the ‘consulting class’
Martin’s allies have attributed some of the criticisms of his chairmanship to the ongoing argument over how the party should spend its resources. That debate has pitted state party leaders and grassroots organizers who want to invest in the states against those they label as consultants who want to spend the money on media buys closer to Election Day.
Jane Kleeb, the chair of the Association of State Democratic Committees and a close ally of Martin’s, said state party chairs are frustrated by the focus on the DNC’s cash on hand, which has overshadowed the impact party changes have had on their states.
“All of that is getting lost because of this kind of consulting class that just cannot get over the fact that they did not get their person in the chair seat,” she said. “That’s what it feels like to us.”
Martin won the chairmanship last February after years of building relationships with rank-and-file DNC members and state party leaders through his role as head of the Association of State Democratic Committees. During last year’s campaign, members described a longtime party operative who sent cards congratulating newly elected members and vowed to democratize and reform the DNC.
Both Martin’s supporters and detractors agree that one of the rockiest parts of his tenure was his handling of the release of the DNC’s autopsy report.
“The point where it was clear he could not continue to do this was after the autopsy release mess, when he failed to understand how important it is that people trust the institution,” said Amanda Litman, the founder of the Democratic candidate recruitment group Run for Something.
After spending much of 2025 vowing to release it, Martin said late last year that the document wouldn’t come out, prompting months of complaints from Democrats demanding its publication. An incomplete version of the document was released in May after CNN obtained much of its contents. Martin apologized for “creating an even bigger distraction” by not releasing it.
“It just turned out that not releasing it was bad, releasing it was bad, and he was choosing between bad and worse,” said Repass, the Kansas chair. “But I think the chair himself would tell you he would have done that differently.”
But Martin has won over Repass and other state party leaders — particularly in red states — with his efforts to invest in and empower state parties. Repass said Kansas Democrats would be able to hire a year-round organizer with the additional funds.
But even Martin’s allies are aware that his reform push can read as insular at a time when Democrats are looking for more sweeping changes.
Kleeb said that the party under Martin has been focused on internal reforms that have, for example, changed the way committee assignments are made to make it more egalitarian. While those moves have curried favor with members who now have a greater say in DNC decisions like the recent 2028 presidential primary calendar debate, they don’t resonate as deeply with the broader Democratic Party.
“Maybe that’s a strategic mistake that’s been made,” Kleeb said. “I think because so many of us come from state parties, we are so nuts and bolts focused — that is in our DNA — and that’s a fault of ours.”
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