Ken Martin, a Minnesota party leader who was elected national chair after Trump's election, ordered a thorough review of what went wrong and what could be done differently, with the intent they would circulate a report as Republicans did after their 2012 election performance. Martin now says the inquiry, which included hundreds of interviews, was complete but that there is no value in a public release of findings that he believes could lead to continued infighting and recriminations before the 2026 midterms when control of Congress will be at stake.
They said it would prevent people's votes from being "wasted" after presidential candidates drop out, and encourage coalition-building among contenders - an attention-grabbing pitch in light of the party's divisive primaries in 2016 and 2020.
"It was shocking to see the DNC chair disregard staff's valid concerns on today's team call," they wrote. "D.N.C. staff worked extremely hard to support historic wins for Democrats up and down the ballot last Tuesday, and this change feels especially callous considering the current economic conditions created by the Trump administration."
HARRISON: Well, I am telling the truth. Tell me the power I have to pick? If I'm the DNC chair, what power do I have to pick? Like people said, well, you could have told Joe Biden to not run. Like seriously? CHARLEMAGNE: Yeah. CASEY: Yeah. CHARLEMAGNE: You could have said that. HARRISON: I could've and CASEY: Nobody was against it during that time. CHARLEMAGNE: You could have and should have.
DNC Chair Martin was accused of being out of touch with American voters after he invited Lindy Sowmick, a self-described Indigenous queer woman, to open the meeting by acknowledging that the land had been taken from the Dakota people and that in many ways, we still live in a system built to suppress indigenous people's cultural and spiritual history. During his own speech, Martin urged fellow Democrats to grow a damn spine.