Democrats’ main fundraising committee is losing big donors and so cash-strapped that its officials have discussed borrowing money just to keep the lights on, with one source spilling to The Post that if things don’t turn around before the 2026 midterms, the party is “f–ked.”
“We are six months in and we’re drowning,” a source close to the Democratic National Committee told The Post about the current rate of contributions. “The RNC was so cash-heavy and hitting us day after day after day when Biden was president.”
“We have no clear path or plan,” they added. “The midterms are going to come before we know it, and then we’re going to be really f–ked.”
The DNC’s struggle to message against the Trump administration and rather public leadership infighting — including the recent departure of former DNC vice chair David Hogg — has also led some of its largest donors to taper off their contributions, the New York Times first reported.
This has dovetailed with high-profile donor defections, such as Pershing Square Capital Management CEO Bill Ackman, Jacob Helberg, and prominent former Democrats backing President Trump in the 2024 cycle.
The DNC has previously taken out a line of credit before, including twice under Tom Perez, who led the party machine from 2017 to 2021.
In response to the reported cash-borrowing discussions, DNC Chair Ken Martin told the Times, “That’s certainly not our plan right now,” adding, “I don’t know if we’ll have to at this point.”
A DNC spokesperson told The Post that the party apparatus doubled its fundraising for the first few months of 2025 relative to the first few months of 2017, during the wake of Democrats’ prior presidential loss.
The spox also claimed that the DNC raked in more grassroots cash in the first three months of Martin’s term than any other national Democratic Party chair in its history.
“It is incredible that [Martin] has not sought to bring all the factions of the party together. He assumed the chairmanship after being opposed by the Democratic leader of the House, the Democratic leader of the Senate, organized labor leaders and many of our country’s leading governors,” a DNC official told The Post.
“And so you would assume after he becomes chairman… he would try to bring all of the party officials together and unite the party. And he’s doing just the opposite.”
“It could have an impact on governors races, it could have an impact on the midterm elections. It’s totally unnecessary,” the official added. “Either he changes tactics and mends fences very quickly or he ceases to be relevant.”
The latest federal records show that by late April, the DNC’s war chest shrank to just under $18 million — approximately one quarter of the cash currently in the RNC’s coffers.
Party members complainedto the Times that the newly installed Martin has been so preoccupied with navigating internal divisions and pursuing financial boondoggles in territories as remote as Guam that he’s been unable to lead the party effectively.
Since being elected DNC chair in February, Martin’s tenure has been dogged by controversy over Hogg’s decision to have his “Leaders We Deserve” group unleash $20 million to fund primary challenges against incumbent House Dems in safe blue districts.
Martin publicly opposed Hogg’s bid to defeat incumbents he deemed ineffective, which had irked many rank-and-file Democrats in Congress. He attempted to get Hogg and other top DNC brass to sign a neutrality pledge, but the 25-year-old refused to oblige.
Then, last month, the DNC Credentials Committee weighed a complaint against Hogg and Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta, claiming that they had been improperly elected to their posts in February in violation of the party apparatus’s gender parity rules.
That panel then recommended the DNC hold new elections to remedy the issue, but Hogg opted to step down on Jun. 11, citing “fundamental disagreement” with fellow party officials over his role as vice chair. Kenyatta won back his perch unopposed.
In a statement issued from his political action committee, Hogg said “It’s okay to have disagreements,” but that “What isn’t OK is allowing this to remain our focus when there is so much more we need to be focused on.”
“Ultimately, I have decided to not run in this upcoming election so the party can focus on what really matters,” he added.
Hogg’s departure was preceded by a leaked Zoom call, in which an exasperated Martin could be heard complaining about the challenges he faced as DNC leader.
“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,’” Martin said on the leaked audio, a copy of which was obtained by Politico.
Hogg hasn’t been the only one to part ways with the DNC this month. Two of the most influential union heavyweights have also jumped ship from the struggling institution.
Randi Weingarten, chief of the American Federation of Teachers, and Lee Saunders, head honcho for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, declined offers to stick with the DNC as at-large members.
“While I am proud to be a Democrat, I appear to be out of step with the leadership you are forging, and I do not want to be the one who keeps questioning why we are not enlarging our tent and actively trying to engage more and more of our communities,” Weingarten wrote in a June 5 letter to Martin.
Alarmingly for the DNC, many deep-pocketed donors have been reluctant to open up their coffers to the party machine amid internal fighting and frustrations with the 2024 election and fears of backlash for donating to Democrats.
“They want us to spend money, and for what? For no message, no organization, no forward thinking,” one donor griped to The Hill earlier this year.
“The thing that’s clear to a lot of us is that the party never really learned its lesson in 2016. They worked off the same playbook and the same ineffective strategies and to what end?”
Despite the struggles, many Democrats are standing by Martin’s leadership of the party machine, for now.
“Ken Martin has been a great boots on the ground Democrat for a very long time, but he’s somebody who plays it safe, and a lot of us sided with him on the David Hogg thing, because everybody secretly thinks David Hogg is an ass anyways,” a Democrat close to the DNC added.
Still, as midterm elections approach, Martin faces a rapidly narrowing window of time to sort out the DNC’s internal strife and finances.
