Democratic Party chair Ken Martin said Sunday that he wasn’t stepping down from the job after
Politico
obtained audio of a meeting at which Martin expressed doubts about his ability and willingness to unify the party.
In the audio recording, Martin
lays the blame on the party’s continued infighting
at the feet of one of his youngest colleagues, March for our Lives co-founder
David Hogg
, and claimed that Hogg had “destroyed” his ability to lead the party out of an electoral abyss it found itself in after 2024.
“I don’t think you intended this, but you essentially destroyed any chance I have to show the leadership that I need to. So it’s really frustrating,” Martin told Hogg on the
Zoom
call, according
to
Politico
,
after stating:“No one knows who the hell I am, right?”
“I’m trying to get my sea legs underneath of me and actually develop any amount of credibility so I can go out there and raise the money and do the job I need to to put ourselves in a position to win,” claimed the chair on the call.
On the same
Zoom
, Martin would go on to make a frank admission: that he’d faced his first doubts about his desire to hold his job any longer.
“I’ll be very honest with you, for the first time in my 100 days on this job … the other night I said to myself for the first time, I don’t know if I wanna do this anymore,” said Martin on the May 15 call.
The Independent
reached out to the Democratic National Committee for comment.
A spokesperson for the party released a statement from Martin to
Politico
, in which Martin said he was “not going anywhere.”
“I took this job to fight Republicans, not
Democrats
,” said the chair, according to
Politico
. “As I said when I was elected, our fight is not within the Democratic Party, our fight is and has to be solely focused on
Donald Trump
and the disastrous Republican agenda. That’s the work that I will continue to do every day.”
Martin’s gripes are at least somewhat grounded in reality. The relatively unknown Minnesota Democrat-Farmer-Labor party chair was selected to lead the party after 2024 over several other candidates including at least one with arguably better name recognition: Ben Wikler of neighboring Wisconsin’s Democratic Party. Since his election, Martin has not been timid from news cameras but has still struggled to step out of the shadow of Hogg, whose activism in the wake of the Parkland school shooting propelled him to national prominence long before Martin.
Hogg, as well, continues to generate headlines — further complicating Martin’s position. The brash, young
DNC
vice chair vowed earlier this year to support primary challenges against the party’s graying electeds in Congress, drawing immediate and visceral anger from the party’s chastened yet still powerful establishment.
Hogg and Martin personally clashed over this issue, and have apparently not reached an amicable compromise.
There’s also the issue of the party’s overall brand, which is in tatters after the 2024 election. A botched campaign season saw former President
Joe Biden
, wracked by physical and mental decline, run for re-election until the summer, well past any viable point for his party to hold a primary to select his replacement. He then was unceremoniously jettisoned from the Democratic ticket in favor of his former running mate,
Kamala Harris
, after he appeared lost and confused onstage during a debate with
Donald Trump
— who’d go on to win the general election.
Martin and others face questions about why those closest to Biden, including Martin’s predecessor, insisted for months (years, even) that Biden’s decline was a right-wing conspiracy and a result of journalists ginning up a fake story. Harris’s defeat in 2024 also saw the party fail to make gains in the House while losing multiple seats in the Senate, ending a Democratic Senate majority.
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