Republicans 2 to 1 cash raising advantage. 10 alarm fire?

It's not fair to blame the new DNC Chairman. The Party is selling a product that's unpopular (socialism) and who's key tenants threaten the economic survival of the tech, Energy, AI and military industries. Ergo, trying to regulate, curtail or defund the folks who have the money, the clout and control the tech landscape. Fighting the Mag &, their vassals and the military industrial complex is a fool's errand.

Democrats Picked a Chairman From the Grassroots. Now, Some See a ‘10-Alarm Fire.’

The party’s financial struggles have become a new test for Chairman Ken Martin as Democrats regroup from 2024 election loss

By Sabrina Siddiqui, Anthony DeBarros and Lindsay Wise, WSJ

July 10, 2026

Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin is facing criticism as the party struggles with fundraising and a major cash disadvantage.

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WASHINGTON—Ken Martin took over the Democratic National Committee promising to rebuild the party from the grassroots up—pulling power out of Washington and into all 50 states.

More than a year later, Martin’s DNC is struggling. The committee has had difficulty filling its coffers as Republicans amass a 2-to-1 cash advantage. And as Democrats wage a once-a-generation battle for the soul of the party, their national chairman has yet to emerge as a central player.

The predicament is partly Martin’s own making, according to more than a dozen Democratic operatives. From the start, Martin made clear he wasn’t focused on repairing relationships with the major donors and party officials who hadn’t backed his bid to run the committee. If those power brokers needed the DNC, he told allies, they could come to him.

That approach has come at a cost, just as the party’s troubles mount: Its Senate nominee in Maine is being driven from the race in a scandal, and Democratic socialist candidates are knocking off established Democrats in primaries.

Against that backdrop, Martin faces growing criticism from some in the party who say he has failed to broaden the committee’s fundraising operation as Republican committees outraise Democrats heading into the midterms. The DNC’s financial struggles have heightened concerns within a party still debating a path forward after its bruising 2024 election loss.

“The two primary jobs of the Democratic National Committee are one: fundraising, and two: going on every form of media every day and messaging,” said Rufus Gifford, the 2024 finance chair for Biden-Harris and Harris-Walz. “If you cannot do those two things as a DNC chair, then you can’t do the job effectively.”

He described the DNC’s cash disadvantage as “a 10-alarm fire.”

In interviews, more than a dozen Democratic operatives, including current and former DNC officials, raised questions about Martin’s ability to help marshal Democrats beyond November, when the national committee’s role becomes more pronounced heading into the 2028 presidential election.

Martin, who declined an interview, defended his grassroots approach in a statement that decried Democrats for running “the same playbook cycle after cycle, relying on smaller and smaller margins, only to get locked out of power.” He added: “We are full-speed ahead to take back Congress in November while setting the stage to retake the White House in 2028.”

Cash disadvantage

The DNC has traditionally played a limited role in midterm elections, when much of the political strategizing and spending shifts to candidates and congressional campaign committees. But the committee has spent $7.3 million more this cycle than it has taken in—which includes receipts from a $15 million loan in October. At the end of May, the DNC had $18.3 million in debt and $14.9 million in cash, according to its most recent Federal Election Commission filing.

Adjusted for inflation, its debt is greater than reported for every month since March 2014, when the committee was still chipping away at a shortfall accumulated during former President Barack Obama’s re-election bid.

The Republican National Committee and its two congressional fundraising arms reported holding $256.1 million in cash at the end of May. That is roughly double the cash held by the DNC and its House and Senate fundraising committees, which together reported $126.7 million.

The disparity has left some worried that the DNC is ill prepared to quickly capitalize on a recent court ruling that struck down federal limits on how much money political parties can spend in coordination with candidates for public office. What could be a major opportunity for the committee “only matters if you actually have money to spend,” said one person close to the DNC.

“A lot of candidates and campaigns, a lot of races on the ground, are going to find themselves totally outgunned when it comes to paid media,” said Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Devin Remiker, who supported Martin’s opponent in the DNC race. “We have to figure out how to make up the difference at a time when many of our donors do not have complete faith in the Democratic Party.”

Several Democrats described the gap as increasingly worrisome, while blaming some of the committee’s financial pressures on debt inherited from former Vice President Kamala Harris’s unsuccessful presidential campaign. After the election and before Martin took over as chair, the DNC downsized as expected but angered its union by laying off some permanent employees.

Senior DNC officials said the group has a longstanding policy of using credit lines and highlighted that even adjusted for inflation, the amount raised by the DNC since 2025 is greater than during the same period in 2018, when House Democrats won a majority in Trump’s first term. A spokeswoman added that Martin has raised more money than any other DNC chair who didn’t have the White House in an equivalent period of time.

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks to attendees at the Democratic National Convention.

Chuck Schumer, then Senate majority leader, addressing the Democratic National Convention in August 2024. The party lost control of the Senate after elections that November. andrew caballero-reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Historically the party out of power fares well in midterm elections, and some Democrats believe they can benefit from the same dynamic to win the House and possibly the Senate—regardless of the national party’s fortunes.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.), both of whom backed one of Martin’s rivals to lead the DNC, now have good relationships with Martin, their offices said. But their aides said Martin, like most DNC chairs, isn’t in charge of the midterm effort or leading the strategy.

Schumer is running the Senate map, although he keeps the DNC and Martin in the loop, Schumer’s office said. A call takes place daily between the DNC and the House and Senate campaign arms to coordinate and check in. Jeffries has done public events with Martin since he became chair, and a spokesman said he “looks forward to a strong and continued partnership” with Martin.

Some party elders defended Martin and blamed the DNC’s financial woes on Democrats’ poor performance in the 2024 elections.

“Ken is a chair in a period when we don’t have the White House, so he has to lead the opposition party,” said Donna Brazile, who previously chaired the DNC. “It’s not an easy job.”

Martin’s insular leadership style and inability to repair bonds with some of the party’s largest donors have allowed strained relationships to fester, according to people familiar with the matter, leading to significant unrealized contributions. Democratic megadonors Reid Hoffman and Alex Soros, who backed Martin’s opponent, haven’t donated directly to the DNC this cycle, nor has billionaire George Soros, according to FEC filings.

“Just because you are a big donor you are not going to have extra influence over the priorities of the DNC,” said Chris Korge, the committee finance chair. He said Martin is constantly engaged in fundraising activities but takes “a much more populist approach.”

Strategy raises questions

Martin, the former chair of Minnesota’s Democratic party, made “getting the DNC out of D.C.” central to his platform. He shifted power back to state party chairs and last year announced a revamped 50-state strategy that provides a combined total of $1 million every month to all 57 Democratic state and territory parties.

Ken Martin speaking to campaign volunteers during a "Virginians For Fair Elections" canvassing event.

Martin speaking to volunteers in Braddock, Va., in April during a canvassing event by state Democrats. Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg News

Building party organizations in every state, rather than concentrating resources only on battlegrounds, has been central to Martin’s strategy. Stuart Appelbaum, a member of the DNC’s rules and bylaws committee, said the relatively modest sums the DNC distributes can have an outsize impact on historically underfunded state parties.

“He’s adopted a strategy that we have to be fighting everywhere,” Appelbaum said.

Martin’s allies say his critics are largely Washington insiders unhappy about losing influence over the party.

“It’s not easy bringing change or telling some folks that have been on the D.C. consulting gravy train that that’s not going to be the way it happens anymore,” said Ray Buckley, the chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party.

Several Democrats said the questions about Martin’s leadership extend beyond fundraising.

His standing inside the party took its sharpest hit after the release of the DNC’s post-2024 election autopsy. The author, Paul Rivera, was a friend and informal adviser of Martin’s who by the DNC’s own admission delivered an unfinished report with no source material provided.

Martin initially refused to make it public, suggesting that reopening the party’s wounds would be a distraction ahead of the midterms. He relented months later after pressure from activists and elected officials forced him to release it.

Martin’s handling of the controversy came under more scrutiny after an interview he gave to Pod Save America, a podcast hosted by former Obama administration aides. Martin insisted on doing the interview himself, according to multiple people familiar with the matter, who said it reinforced concerns about his political instincts.

During the interview, former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau questioned Martin’s move to cut the same size check to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands—U.S. territories that don’t hold federal elections—as it did to key battlegrounds such as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

“I’m used to taking the potshots,” a combative Martin responded. “I just don’t care.”

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