Knives Out for DNC Chairman Ken Martin After Reports of Paranoia, Mismanagement at Party Headquarters

After a series of reports disclosing an incident in which the Democratic National Committee chairman allegedly threw a phone near a subordinate, some top Democrats say the time has come for Ken Martin to go. The calls for Mr. Martin’s resignation come after more than a year of financial mismanagement and paranoia inside of DNC headquarters, which is deeply in debt as the party ramps up for the 2028 presidential primaries. Mr. Martin was elected as the DNC chairman early last year after his party lost control of all levers of government in the 2024 election. He for years successfully ran the Democrats’ state party in Minnesota and promised to bring that kind of competence to the national stage. More than a year later, however, Mr. Martin is proving to be incapable of managing the sprawling party apparatus. For months, ongoing debt has plagued the committee only to be compounded by his seeming inability to raise money. NOTUS reported Sunday that Mr. Martin had put up the party headquarters building at Washington, D.C, as collateral for a loan. The interest and principal for the loan is costing the party about $75,000 per month. According to the most recent Federal Election Commission records, the DNC entered the third quarter millions of dollars in the red. The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, has more than $120 million in its account.On Sunday, the New York Times reported that Mr. Martin was growing increasingly paranoid on the job, which may have contributed to his allegedly throwing a phone near a subordinate, resulting in a human resources complaint against the chairman. “It pisses me off when I see leaks out of this building,” Mr. Martin reportedly told staff, according to the Times. “No more of that s—. No more.”After the stories were published, many Democrats made clear that they were done giving Mr. Martin the benefit of the doubt. “Ken Martin’s tenure is effectively over, it’s clear no one respects him and he is terrible at the job. It’s just a matter of how long the rest of us have to wait until he accepts the inevitable,” the founder of the Searchlight Institute and former chief of staff to Senator John Fetterman, Adam Jentleson, wrote on X. The liberal commentator Matt Yglesias wrote online that while he feels “bad” that Mr. Martin is facing significant scrutiny, the DNC chairmanship is “fundamentally … a fundraising job and the guy in the job is not good at it.”A former vice chairman of the DNC, David Hogg — who now runs a political action committee that targets longtime moderate incumbent lawmakers — also said Mr. Martin has to go. “We shouldn’t have someone leading the DNC who can’t raise money. Let alone someone who throws stuff at staff and can’t raise money,” Mr. Hogg wrote on X. The founder of the group Run for Something, which gives would-be Democratic candidates support and guidance as they navigate elections, also questioned Mr. Martin’s ability to do his job. “The only people with the power to change leadership are DNC members and Ken himself. Hope they find it in themselves to honestly answer: Is the status quo serving our larger goals?” Amanda Litman asked on X. Removing a chairman or chairwoman at the DNC requires a majority of the elected members of the party to vote for Mr. Martin’s firing. A vote of no confidence could also be called, per party rules, which could act as a kind of pressure point to get Mr. Martin to step down. The last time a DNC leader resigned was in 2016, when then-chairwoman and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz stepped down after leaked emails disclosed that staff members at the party expressed favoritism for the former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, to be that year’s presidential nominee over Senator Bernie Sanders.

Knives Out for DNC Chairman Ken Martin After Reports of Paranoia, Mismanagement at Party Headquarters

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