Don't punish Ken Martin for flubbing Dems’ 2024 autopsy |
Don’t punish Ken Martin for flubbing Dems’ 2024 autopsy
For weeks, a steady stream of criticism has been aimed at Ken Martin, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Some of it has come from named critics willing to put their reputation behind their arguments. A great deal more has come from “DNC members,” “longtime operatives” and “senior Democrats” who appear in Axios, the Bulwark, ABC Newsand elsewhere, without ever attaching their names to a single word.
That pattern is worth noticing, because people who are confident in their case usually sign it.
Martin made a real mistake when he promised an after-action report on 2024 and then sat on it for months. When he acknowledged the mistake and released the report, it was the right call — and frankly, an overdue one. But anyone who argues a single botched rollout justifies removing the chair of the party 18 months before a presidential primary is not making a serious argument. These people are using a real error as cover for a fight they already wanted to have.
That fight started in February 2025, when Martin beat Ben Wikler for the chairmanship. One faction of the party has never since stopped relitigating that race. Every leaked complaint, every demand for resignation, every think piece predicting doom traces back to the same disappointed corner of the party.
They lost an election. They are now trying to win it through........