Dem
47
GOP
53
DNC Chair Ken Martin is in some pretty hot water right now. The DNC is awash in a sea of red ink, of course. His various initiatives, like the midterm political convention, have crashed and burned. And he made a complete and total hatchet job of the 2024 autopsy. First he said he'd release it, then he said he wouldn't, and then he finally did, but what he released was at best a rough draft, and at worst was doctored to remove the really touchy stuff.
Despite all of this, however, Martin might keep his job, for two primary reasons. The first is that it's not so easy to get rid of a DNC (or RNC) chair who doesn't want to go. If there was a sitting Democratic president, and that president "hinted" that the chair should resign, they would have little choice but to do so. In the absence of a sitting president (and, thus, a clear-cut party leader), then the pressure would have to come from the DNC members, or maybe from the two party leaders in Congress. Thus far, none of those folks has shown an inclination to call for Martin's head.
The other problem is that the DNC is a mess. That is (partly) Martin's fault, but it might also be (partly) his salvation. Nobody who might plausibly take over the job seems to want it, since they would instantly inherit all the headaches, including the cash crunch, the problems of being out of power, an angry base, and party machinery that has become moribund. A few folks have reportedly already been approached, just to feel them out, and they've all said "no, thanks!" That list includes former DNC Chair Howard Dean, former Montana Senator Jon Tester, and former Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler, who lost out to Martin just last year.
The bench is still pretty deep, and some Democrats hope they might find an interested party among former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM), former president of the Service Employees International Union Mary Kay Henry, former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke, former EMILYs List president Stephanie Schriock, and a few others. But thus far, no luck. Indeed, Martin's situation somewhat parallels that of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who isn't especially popular with his conference, but who has no clear replacement, either. (Z)