The party has struggled with internal turmoil for months
Major Democratic donors turned down the Democratic National Committee’s request to host a fundraiser, with one sending a “profanity-laced” message in response.
“At one point earlier this year, the DNC reached out to big donors to host a San Francisco-area fundraiser headlined by former Vice President Kamala Harris. Most of the donors rejected the request,” the Wall Street Journal reported, citing individuals familiar with the conversations. While the DNC eventually found a host, the fundraiser brought in less than the committee had hoped.
“Upon receiving the invitation, one [donor] replied with a profanity-laced rejection,” the report noted. “Others said they didn’t want to give to the party until it produced substantive plans to win elections. Those who declined told the national party they had commitments and couldn’t make it work.”
Fundraising data released this week show the DNC trailing far behind its Republican counterpart. At the start of October, the DNC held around $12 million in cash reserves, compared with the Republican National Committee’s $86 million.
The party has been embroiled for months in financial troubles and bitter infighting. A Politico report in August also found that the DNC “wildly trails” the RNC by nearly all fundraising metrics, as donors viewed the party as “rudderless, off message and leaderless.” Many Democrats have grown frustrated with DNC chairman Ken Martin’s leadership, with one member calling Martin “weak and whiny” and another saying the chairman has been “invisible.”
The DNC ousted former vice chair David Hogg in June, after Martin blasted Hogg’s $20 million scheme to fund primary challenges against “ineffective, asleep-at-the-wheel” Democratic incumbents. The turmoil escalated when two of the party’s most influential labor leaders quit their DNC posts, both citing the party’s direction under Martin.
Insurgent Democratic congressional candidates have carried on the fight against incumbents, vowing to be “ruthless” in their opposition to House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) and other members of the party’s “establishment,” a situation that could splinter the party ahead of next year’s midterms.
“Some donors remain angry about how their money was spent in last year’s presidential election by outside groups, including on what they see as excessive salaries for Washington, D.C., consultants,” the Journal reported, citing a top official at a national Democratic group. The official noted that the party has failed to learn from its election defeat last fall.
“It is shocking how little reassessment the party and its leadership has done,” Democratic megadonor Rachel Pritzker, a cousin of Illinois governor and potential 2028 presidential hopeful J.B. Pritzker (D.), told the Journal.
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