Inside the Phone-Throwing Drama at the Troubled, Broke Democratic Party

The Democratic Party is so quick on money that leaders at its headquarters have undertaken a brand new gambit to masks the severity of the issues: asking distributors to not ship payments till after the midterm elections.

The bookkeeping maneuver, which was described by three individuals briefed on it, is the newest signal of economic duress for the Democratic National Committee and its embattled chief as cash troubles threaten to undercut Democratic momentum with 100 days till the midterms.

So a lot goes politically proper for Democrats today. President Trump’s approval is down, gas prices are up and an unpopular war with Iran drags on. But dysfunction and debt inside one in every of the social gathering’s key establishments — which is getting crushed in fund-raising by its Republican counterpart — are creating rising nervousness for high Democrats.

At the middle is Ken Martin, the 53-year-old social gathering chairman, who has discovered himself more and more remoted, gripped by the worry that he’ll lose his job and counting on a vanishingly small circle of individuals he trusts, in line with interviews with greater than two dozen Democrats, together with present and former DNC officers and members. Most of them spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate the social gathering’s troubled state of affairs.

Mr. Martin’s fraying nerves are displaying. In a pinch of frustration in early July, he threw his telephone at the desk of a junior aide whereas upbraiding the individual. The phone-tossing incident resulted in a proper grievance to the DNC’s human assets division.

The fallout from the phone-throwing episode was described by half a dozen individuals conversant in the incident, who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to debate inside social gathering issues. None of them witnessed the encounter, and there was some dispute over how aggressively the telephone was tossed. Mr. Martin was stated to have thrown the telephone at the desk, quite than at the aide.

Mr. Martin later met with DNC human assets officers about his habits, in line with three of the individuals.

The Democratic National Committee declined to touch upon the incident. Mr. Martin declined an interview request. Roger Lau, the govt director of the DNC, stated in an announcement that the bill-deferral discussions have been “nothing more than standard negotiations with vendors over contracts and payment processes.”

Around the workplace and past, Mr. Martin has taken to creating macabre jokes to colleagues about how lengthy he’ll stay in his publish, regardless that his time period doesn’t finish till 2029. He is pissed off with the tarnished public picture of a celebration that he plainly loves and has devoted his life to — and that is still bullish about November given President Trump’s low approval ratings.

But the Democratic Party and its allies are far behind Republicans when it comes to money. Mr. Trump controls a $400 million tremendous PAC, and the Republican National Committee is sitting on practically $130 million. Mr. Martin’s DNC is $2 million in debt.

The committee’s function is not only to assist Democrats achieve again energy in the midterms, but additionally to steer the social gathering into the 2028 presidential race, together with by overseeing a new primary calendar whereas organizing debates and a nationwide conference.

Even supporters acknowledge Mr. Martin’s rising sense of paranoia. He confronted the social gathering’s finance director this spring over what he thought was a budding coup. And earlier than he met with the high congressional Democrats, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, in mid-July, assurances got to an ally of Mr. Martin’s that the two social gathering leaders didn’t plan to make use of the gathering to name for the chairman’s resignation.

Mr. Martin was elected final February to a four-year time period by the roughly 450 members of the DNC, and solely a vote of the membership itself might push him out.

Trust in Mr. Martin — amongst each donors and social gathering officers — was accepted by his dealing with of a long-promised post-mortem of the 2024 election. Late final 12 months, he stated he would not release the document. But as criticism mounted, I relented in May and released an incomplete draft that featured searing annotations from the DNC that undermined the report.

In public, Mr. Martin has all however disappeared as a face of the social gathering on tv ever since a fumbling April look on the liberal podcast Pod Save America, when he confronted questions on why he had not launched the post-mortem. His lone tv interview in latest months was on local news in Erie, Pa.

Now, Mr. Martin is each paralyzed by the thought of ​​leaks and surrounded by them. During a May assembly with the full employees of the DNC days after the draft post-mortem’s launch, he admitted that occasions they have been robust and challenged the workforce for revealing to reporters what was taking place inside social gathering headquarters.

“It pisses me off when I see leaks out of this building,” Mr. Martin stated, in line with 4 individuals who heard the remarks. “No more of that shit. No more.”

Mr. Martin stated he noticed “a lot of down faces” and “people hanging their heads.” He urged: “Keep your head up. Keep a smile on your face.”

“My success is your success,” he added at one other level in the assembly. “So the weaker I am, the weaker all of you are.”

Mr. Martin has not addressed the total social gathering employees since.

This week, I’ve personally drafted an essay of more than 3,000 words defending the state of the DNC’s funds. He held the essay carefully, and it was posted collectively by the social gathering and his private Substack, beneath the @kenmartin287890 deal with, simply after 10 pm on Monday.

“We must measure success by power built, not simply dollars retained,” he wrote.

Cash Crunch

None of the social gathering’s issues are extra acute than cash.

For greater than a decade, the DNC has transferred tens of millions of {dollars} each election to sister committees answerable for profitable the House and Senate. But the nationwide social gathering is now so quick on money — even after taking out a $15 million mortgage final 12 months — that officers have privately conveyed to congressional management that there will likely be no such transfers in 2026.

The principal matter of the assembly this month with Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries, together with their high aides and the chairs of the two congressional marketing campaign arms, was forming an enormous new shared fund-raising account throughout the three nationwide committees — and state events throughout the nation.

Even as the political setting has been eroded for Republicans, cash stays a critical concern for Democrats. Republican Party committees are way more flush than Democratic ones — simply as a latest Supreme Court ruling made party cash more important by lifting restrictions on how events can coordinate with campaigns.

Inside the room, Mr. Martin described a proposal through which a lot of the money raised via this mega committee — which would come with state events nationwide — could be routed first via his committee earlier than being distributed to the congressional social gathering arms.

At least somebody concerned noticed the transfer as a bid to inflate the fund-raising figures of Mr. Martin’s struggling committee — and to take credit score for money transfers he couldn’t in any other case afford.

Mr. Martin provided to do no matter was useful, though the group left with out an settlement. The assembly, which has not been beforehand reported, was described by 5 individuals, together with somebody in the room, who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate a non-public gathering.

New monetary reviews launched this week revealed the depth of the DNC’s monetary gap. The social gathering is $2 million in debt, whereas the Republican National Committee has $128.5 million in money available. The social gathering that holds the White House nearly all the time raises more cash into its social gathering coffers, however this 12 months’s chasm is very giant.

Ahead of the DNC’s July report, there have been indicators of making an attempt to brighten the look of the books. The committee, for example, transferred $1 million from an account devoted to the 2028 nationwide conference again to the social gathering.

Some of the issues are a hangover from 2024. While Vice President Kamala Harris raised report sums that 12 months, her loss left many huge Democratic donors disillusioned with the social gathering. Her marketing campaign additionally had tens of millions in debt that the DNC spent a lot of final 12 months paying off, with Ms. Harris’s help.

Last fall, Mr. Martin despatched $3 million every to Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey for his or her governor’s races, betting that victories would reinvigorate fund-raising for the DNC The $15 million mortgage was timed to permit these transfers.

The DNC has since paid greater than $700,000 in curiosity on that mortgage, averaging greater than $75,000 monthly, federal information present. Party officers are actually reckoning with the incontrovertible fact that they have to start to repay $1.66 million of the mortgage’s principal monthly beginning in January, in line with the mortgage’s phrases.

“Ken needs help — HELP,” stated Donna Brazile, a veteran DNC member who has twice served as appearing social gathering chair. “And if he’s reluctant to say it, I’m here to help him ask. It’s hard. It’s very difficult.”

Tense Talks

The similar day that Mr. Martin spoke at the all-staff assembly in May, he urgently tried to get in contact with the social gathering’s finance chairman, Chris Korge.

Mr. Korge had been talking with different senior social gathering officers a few potential emergency assembly to debate the social gathering’s sagging funds. Hearing about the calls, Mr. Martin appeared to worry {that a} coup was a foot.

They related late one Tuesday night time.

“It started off extremely hot,” Mr. Korge recalled of their dialog. “Because he came into that call thinking my intention was motivated to take some sort of action to remove him, and that was the furthest thing from the truth.”

Word of the confrontation, which has not beforehand been reported, unfold throughout the senior ranks of the social gathering. Mr. Korge now describes it as merely “a family fight” that was resolved amicably by the finish of the name. “I have believed in Ken’s priorities from Day 1 for the party,” he stated.

The assembly of high social gathering officers that Mr. Korge had wished came about in Pittsburgh in June. There, they have been offered for the first time with nondisclosure agreements, which Axios has previously reported.

The NDAs have been one more signal of Mr. Martin’s narrowing circle of belief.

Strategy Doubts

Before Mr. Martin ascended to the nationwide social gathering chairmanship in early 2025, he had served for 14 years as the head of the Minnesota Democrats, throughout which period his social gathering by no means misplaced a statewide race.

Inside the DNC, he led the state social gathering chairs group. The alliances he solid there helped him overcome opposition from distinguished Democrats in Washington, together with Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries, to win the nationwide social gathering publish.

Mr. Martin knew the new job could be arduous, ceaselessly making a joke evaluating his function to a fireplace hydrant and everybody else to a canine.

But Mr. Martin believes deeply in handing cash and relinquishing energy to the states. I’ve increased their monthly allotments from the nationwide social gathering, particularly in purple states, and final 12 months despatched an additional $100,000 to Mississippi Democrats earlier than a particular election that broke a legislative Republican supermajority.

“We were able to — with the extra help our candidates needed — get over the finish line,” stated Mikel Bolden, the govt director of the Mississippi Democratic Party, crediting Mr. Martin.

Mr. Martin and his allies ceaselessly word that fund-raising has been stronger than the final time the social gathering was out of energy in 2018.

But some Democrats, each inside and out of doors the committee, are questioning the place precisely all the cash has gone.

The single greatest expense in the Martin period was $7.3 million to purchase the remnants of Ms. Harris’s marketing campaign checklist from her failed 2024 bid. Ms. Harris’s political motion committee used the money to cover additional remaining debts.

Mr. Martin’s pledge to extend month-to-month handouts to state events has been the centerpiece of his spending agenda. But his inclusion of the territories has triggered consternation.

Spending from the DNC and an affiliated fund-raising committee for Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Marianas, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa has reached about $840,000 since the starting of final 12 months, federal information present — excess of in the previous.

None of these territories may have any influence on management of Congress.