Rahm Emanuel, former President Barack Obama’s first White House chief of staff, said the committee is floundering. “We’re in the most serious existential crisis with Donald Trump both at home and abroad — and with the biggest political opportunity in a decade,” Emanuel said.
“And the DNC has spent six months on a firing squad in the circle, and can’t even fire a shot out. And Trump’s world is a target-rich environment.”
Many DNC members and outside Democrats, including Martin’s supporters, said they wished the party would just move on from recent internal turmoil and focus instead on mounting an effective fight against Trump.
Two influential labor union heads quit their posts at the DNC after disagreements over the party’s direction. Gun control activist David Hogg was ousted from the DNC’s vice chairman position after he pledged to fund primary challenges against "ineffective" Democrats.Martin has infuriated some Democrats by purging a number of party officials from a powerful panel that has enormous sway over the presidential nominating contest. And Martincomplained in a private meeting that intraparty warfare had “destroyed any chance I have to show the leadership that I need to.”
Martin and his supporters argue he’s focused on the things that matter and will ultimately win elections. They said he has traveled to dozens of states and boosted funding to state parties at the same time that Democrats have overperformed in special elections this year. They maintain the overwhelming majority of DNC members are solidly behind Martin, and that his detractors are a vocal minority.
“I ran and won the race for DNC chair to get the DNC out of DC — because too many people in DC want to point fingers, and play the blame game,” said Martin in a statement to POLITICO. “They want to win irrelevant arguments, with no strategy involved, but the one strategic thing that makes us relevant is winning elections. I was elected chair to help our party win again, and we are.”
But some Democrats worry the DNC is struggling to hold its own coalition together, let alone expand its appeal.
They expressed frustration over the DNC’s break-up with American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and AFSCME President Lee Saunders — who between them represent millions of members — as the latest sign of a widening gap between party leadership and the labor movement, a once-core part of the Democratic coalition.
“The DNC is weaker than I have ever seen it. … They have shown zero ability to chart a post-24 vision for Democrats,” said a Democratic strategist with close ties to labor unions, who was granted anonymity to speak frankly. The longtime leaders of the teachers and state and local employee unions couldn't “in good faith continue to rubber-stamp what was going on with the DNC,” the strategist said.
Both Weingarten and Saunders expressed concern about Democrats not enlarging their tent in their respective letter and statement about their departures. Weingarten told POLITICO, “I have said my piece. I want the Democratic Party to work for working families. That’s what FDR did, that’s what Joe Biden did, and that’s what we should expect from the party.”
