Democrats lose patience with embattled DNC chair

Democrats say they have lost patience with Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin amid his precarious tenure at the national party.

The New York Times reported the party chair has been increasingly anxious about losing his job and threw a phone at an aide's desk earlier this month in frustration, prompting a human resources complaint. Sources told the Times that Martin met with human resources after the incident. The DNC declined to comment to The Hill about the incident.

The party also received renewed attention around its finances this week. While it had been previously reported that the DNC took out a $15 million line of credit last fall, Washington, D.C., property deeds, first reported by NOTUS, confirmed the national party specifically put up its building as collateral for the loan — a measure the DNC has previously undertaken with other loans over the years.

"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 the finance chair of former Vice President Kamala Harris's 2024 campaign, wrote in a Substack post on Monday.

For one, the latest federal campaign finance reports filed in July showed a tale of two political parties: The Republican National Committee raised close to $17 million in June and had more than $128 million in the bank while the DNC raised more than $10 million during that same period and is essentially $2 million in debt.

The Times also noted the DNC asked vendors to submit invoices after the election. DNC Executive Director Roger Lau noted in a statement that "this is nothing more than standard negotiations with vendors over contracts and payment processes."

"There was a pretty long time I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, and space to grow into the role, but clearly it has just continued to get worse," said Democratic strategist Eddie Vale, adding that "it's hurting the other committees and candidates with poor fundraising."

However, Martin and his allies argue the criticisms are unfair and that the party's fundraising is at its best yet. "The current DNC has raised the most money of any DNC without the White House in the 198-year history of the Democratic Party," Martin wrote in a piece on Substack last week. "Through June 2026, this DNC reported total receipts of more than $207 million."

"Under Ken Martin's leadership the DNC has broken virtually every fundraising record for a chair when we don't hold the White House," said Michael Kapp, a DNC member and Martin ally. "And Democrats are overperforming in nine out of 10 competitive races."