Inside the furor plaguing Democratic National Committee leader Ken Martin

NEW YORK (AP) — Democrats keep winning at the ballot box. And yet Ken Martin, the man leading the Democratic National Committee, is facing a crisis of confidence among party officials who are increasingly concerned about the health of their political machine barely a year into his term.

Major donors aren't giving. Liberal influencers are publicly questioning Martin's refusal to release an internal report on the party's failures. And Democratic operatives have begun informal discussions about recruiting a new chair, even as most believe that Martin's job isn't in serious jeopardy ahead of the midterm elections.

Amanda Litman, who leads the Democratic-allied organization Run For Something, said she's been approached by senior strategists in recent days gauging her interest in replacing Martin. She declined but said many in the party have lost faith in the DNC leader.

"I think it's a really hard job, and also Ken is not doing it very well," Litman told The Associated Press. "I honestly think he's going to have a hard time rebuilding trust."

The criticism has gotten to Martin, said two people who insisted on anonymity to describe private conversations. They said he's become increasingly paranoid, even inside party headquarters in Washington, where he did not install his own team after taking over last year.

Martin is leaning into a 50-state spending strategy that his supporters privately acknowledge is risky. The DNC each month is distributing $1 million among party organizations in every state and key U.S. territories, besides allocating $5,000 more per month to nearly two dozen Republican-controlled states, to help build party infrastructure.

The national party reported $22.1 million cash on hand with $18.4 million in debt at the end of March, according to its most recent federal filing. The Republican National Committee, by contrast, reported $116.8 million in the bank with zero debt.

Despite the criticism, DNC national finance co-chair Chris Lowe said the cash disparity is the result of an intentional strategy Martin outlined when running for chair and has executed since taking over the building. "We made a conscious decision to spend money," Lowe said. "His view, and I would agree with this view, is the best way to position ourselves for the presidential (election) in '28 is not just to amass a bunch of money, it's to have a history of winning elections all across the country up and down the ballot. And that's what we've done."

Beyond fundraising, the furor around Martin's leadership centers on his refusal to release the DNC's internal study of the 2024 election — known inside the DNC as the "after-action report" — despite his past promises to do so on his first day as chair.

Martin has been aggressively courting big-dollar donors, despite their demonstrated reluctance to give to the committee. He acknowledged pressure related to the autopsy in some of the conversations and indicated changes could be coming soon, according to two people with direct knowledge of the discussions but not authorized to share them.