National Democratic Party Chair Ken Martin is said to be in survival mode. That’s how people close to the embattled leader describe his mindset as he navigates a storm of frustration from within the party heading into the November elections.

Ken Martin is in survival mode.

Desperate to save his job as chair of the Democratic National Committee, he is avoiding media appearances, monitoring his critics’ social media posts and refusing — at least so far — to make any substantive changes at his troubled organization.

A half dozen state leaders and other committee members, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations, described Martin as defensive and extremely distrustful of others, even some people on his own team, as calls for his resignation grow louder among Democratic operatives who lament his leadership decisions, lackluster fundraising and even his tendency to lash out in anger.

But there is no sign that the organization’s membership plans to replace Martin before the midterm elections in November, even as some wonder how much longer he can hold on. The drama threatens to undermine the party’s momentum in the battle to retake control of Congress from President Donald Trump’s Republican Party.

  • baronvonj@piefed.socialEnglish
    42·
    4 days ago

    But Ken Martin has a progressive history of running the DFL party in MN before becoming the Democratic state party chair, and didn’t come to the DNC until after the 2024 election. So I see him being resisted by entrenched party officials as a sign that he is, in fact, trying to bring change from within.

    • kreskin@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 days ago

      And yet Ken has failed to bring any progressivism at all to his new job, and fails to even give lip service to progressive causes now. He’s pro zionism and he badly bungled the post mortem of the failed 2024 election. No one did that TO him. He needs to eff off back to Minnesota, either on his own or after being fired.

      Ken is not doing progressive things, he’s fellating zionists. So he talk to the pitchforks and guillotines along with the other centrists.

    • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
      63·
      4 days ago

      This paired with the idea that a lot of these “DNC is corrupt and a controlled opposition party!” posts are coming from people who want to discourage democratic voters from voting. The “Both sides are the same” crowd is not entirely but well populated by far-right agitators that just want to harm the chances of progressives.

      We all know that the DNC falls well short in a variety of ways, but… Godamn they’re not the ones rolling back EPA protections, not the ones voting to expand ICE killings and suspending habeas corpus to unlawfully detained migrants, they’re not the ones withholding disaster relief and healthcare funding from states as political revenge, they’re not the ones raping and murdering children…

      For as bad as the DNC is, for as beholden to rich donors and unyielding to progressive ideals as they are… Man they’re clearly better than the alternative. Like, in every way.