Politico recently obtained a two-minute recording from a May 15 Zoom meeting of Democratic National Committee officers. During the call, Committee Chair Ken Martin, who was very emotional at the time, expressed doubts about his ability to continue on in his leadership role due to the “infighting” created by then-Vice Chair David Hogg. I wrote about this story here.
Hogg, you may recall, has vowed to spend $20 million via his super PAC, Leaders We Deserve, to primary Democrats in safe seats with younger, and, in his opinion, more effective candidates. While there may be wisdom in Hogg’s idea, according to Politico, it has “ignited a firestorm in the party.”
Shortly after the audio from the call was leaked, the DNC voted to hold new elections. Hogg announced he would not seek to reclaim his former role as vice chair.
Among those dissatisfied with Hogg’s departure and Martin’s leadership are Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.8-million-member American Federation of Teachers, and Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, which represents approximately 1.4 million workers.
Their dissatisfaction ran so deep that both have severed long-standing ties with the DNC. In a letter to Martin dated June 5 and received on Sunday, Weingarten informed him she was declining his offer to be reappointed to the Committee.
She wrote, “While I am proud to be a Democrat, I appear to be out of step with the leadership you are forging, and I do not want to be the one who keeps questioning why we are not enlarging our tent.”
The New York Times reported that Saunders had written a similar letter of resignation to Martin on May 27. The Times reached out to Saunders for a comment on his decision, and he replied with the following statement:
The decision to decline the nomination to the Democratic National Committee was not made lightly. It comes after deep reflection and deliberate conversation about the path forward for our union and the working people we represent.These are new times. They demand new strategies, new thinking and a renewed way of fighting for the values we hold dear. We must evolve to meet the urgency of this moment. This is not a time to close ranks or turn inward. The values we stand for, and the issues we fight for, benefit all working people. It is our responsibility to open the gates, welcome others in and build the future we all deserve together.
[Given their positions as union leaders, many are questioning why Weingarten or Saunders were involved with the DNC at all—but I digress.]
As the Times sees it, their departures “represent a significant erosion of trust” in both the DNC and in Martin’s ability to lead the party out of its current disarray. The article noted that in their respective resignation letters, both union bosses “suggested that under Mr. Martin’s leadership, the DNC was failing to expand its coalition.”
According to the Times, neither Weingarten nor Saunders supported Martin in the DNC chairmanship race earlier this year. Instead, they backed his opponent, Ben Wikler, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party. After securing the position, Martin removed Weingarten from the DNC’s powerful Rules and Bylaws Committee, which oversees the calendar and procedures for the party’s presidential nominating process.
From there, the situation continued to unravel.
And if Martin thought Hogg’s exit was the end of his problems, he was sorely mistaken.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on LinkedIn or X.
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