There’s an old rule in politics: when your opponent starts breaking furniture in his own house, don’t grab a hammer and help him.
President Donald Trump may not need much help heading into the 2026 midterms because Democrats keep creating problems they don’t have to create, then acting shocked when the floor gives way.
Democrats should have a built-in advantage; the party out of power usually performs well in midterms, and Republicans carry the weight of governing. Yet Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin faces donor frustration, as the AP reports, plus fundraising worries, debt, and private complaints from party figures who expected a sharper rebound after Kamala Harris lost the 2024 presidential race.
The handwringing comes despite the Democratic Party’s undeniable success in the vast majority of elections under Martin’s leadership, which coincides with Republican President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Democrats over the last year have dominated races for governor and special elections for state legislative and congressional seats. They’ve also won campaigns for state supreme court, county executive and even county sheriff.
Less than six months before the 2026 midterm elections, however, the concern over Martin’s leadership is, at best, an unwanted distraction for a party desperate to break the Republican Party’s grip on power in Washington. And, at worst, the conflict will make it harder for Democrats to win in November, while undermining faith in the DNC as it coordinates the party’s next presidential nomination process.
Martin declined to comment for this article. He has sought to avoid media interviews over the last week, preferring to keep his head down while focusing on improving the DNC’s financial health and scouting potential sites for the presidential convention in 2028.
The DNC has roughly $22 million in cash on hand and over $18 million in debt, and, as ABC News reports, the Republican National Committee has reported far more cash and no debt.
With six months until the high-stakes midterm elections, the Democratic Party is struggling to raise money and keep up with its GOP counterparts, leading to frustrations among some donors with Democratic National Committee leadership and its chair Ken Martin.
At the end of March, the Republican National Committee outraised the DNC $21.2 million to $11.4 million, according to new reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. The RNC reported having nearly eight times more cash on hand — $116 million to the DNC’s $13.8 million. In addition, the DNC is a little over $18 million in debt, according to FEC filings.
Democrats, though, are performing better than they did in 2018 at this point in the cycle when the party had raised $7 million and had little more than $9 million cash on hand. The party had just under $6 million in debt at that time, too.
Money doesn’t solve every political problem, but broke parties don’t scare many people. Democrats spent years treating “anything but Trump” as a full-service platform. When that strategy didn’t beat him for good, they kept adding darker labels and louder warnings.
The strategy now looks tired; voters still hear plenty about Trump’s alleged threats to democracy, but they hear far less about what Democrats would do on prices, the border, energy, crime, or the basic daily costs eating family budgets.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) remains the top House Democratic voice, and he’s still pushing hard to win back the speaker’s gavel. His path grew harder after Virginia’s Supreme Court struck down a Democratic-backed congressional map in a 4-3 ruling on May 8, 2026.
The map could’ve helped Democrats gain as many as four Republican-held U.S. House seats, but the court correctly ruled that lawmakers failed to follow the proper legal process when they rushed the measure onto the ballot.
The map loss hurt because Democrats had counted on redistricting as part of their comeback plan. Jeffries can still talk about intensity, turnout, and candidate quality, but a blocked map removes one of the easier paths back to power.
The setback also exposes the larger problem: Democrats keep accusing Republicans of rigging maps while chasing their map advantage wherever they can find it. Voters may not follow every legal filing, but they can smell hypocrisy when it walks past them wearing cologne.
The Texas redistricting fight also deserves cleaner language than the usual Trump-blame reflex. Biden’s Justice Department sued Texas in December 2021 over congressional and state House redistricting plans.
Trump didn’t invent that fight by waving a Sharpie over Austin. His Justice Department later withdrew from the Biden-era case in March 2025. The full timeline doesn’t fit the “Trump dictator” routine, so it often gets flattened into something more useful for campaign emails.
Democrats still have real chances in 2026 because midterms punish presidents. Republican mistakes will happen, voters will get restless, and no serious person should pretend the GOP can coast.
Yet Democrats keep making Trump’s job easier by offering anger as a meal and calling it dinner. Ken Martin has a money problem, Jeffries has a map problem, and Harris left Democrats with a morale problem.
The party’s loudest voices still sound more interested in another Trump impeachment fantasy than a serious governing pitch.
Trump’s best midterm strategy may be patience; let Democrats explain why their debts, blocked maps, stale message, and leadership fights prove they’re ready for Congress again.
Let Hakeem Jeffries keep selling the same anti-Trump act while the DNC passes the hat and donors check the exits. A party can survive defeat, but it has a much harder time surviving when defeat teaches it nothing.
Again.
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