Democrats are ramping up pressure on Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin to resign after he finally released a shelved autopsy report on the 2024 presidential election.
Martin originally said he would release the report after he won the DNC chairmanship in early 2025. By December, he backtracked, claiming the party had already learned from the loss former Vice President Kamala Harris suffered against President Donald Trump.
Yet, not everyone was on board. Martin faced pressure from Democrats, including Harris herself and other potential 2028 candidates like Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), to release the autopsy. On Thursday, Martin caved and released the report, titled “Build to Win. Build to Last,” in a surprise announcement.
“For full transparency, I am releasing the report as we received it, in its entirety, unedited and unabridged,” Martin said. “It does not meet my standards, and it won’t meet your standards, but I am doing this because people need to be able to trust the Democratic Party and trust our word.”
Martin also apologized for creating a distraction by dragging out the release of the document.
The report is riddled with errors and multiple notes clarifying that public reporting contradicts the points of the autopsy. Democrats quickly slammed the report as incompetent and not ready for public release while blaming Martin for bungling the entire process.
Now, some Democrats are going further and publicly calling for Martin to resign.
Former DNC Vice Chairman David Hogg called the autopsy report “a demoralizing joke” in a statement before turning his ire on Martin.
“It’s clear that Chair Ken Martin has lost the confidence of his staff, supporters, and most importantly, millions of Americans counting on the DNC to help Democrats win up and down the ballot in 2026 and 2028,” Hogg said. “Ken Martin should resign, and the DNC should select a new leader who demonstrates competence, creativity, moral clarity, and a relentless commitment to actually changing the broken Democratic Party brand.”
Dan Pfeiffer, a former adviser to Barack Obama, said the DNC autopsy debacle was a disaster of Martin’s own making.
“It’s sufficient evidence that he is not the right person to lead the DNC at this time,” he added.
A DNC member, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, told the Washington Examiner they didn’t expect Martin to last through the end of the year.
“Personally, I’m not certain he makes it to August,” they said. “Seeing what happened today, and then we had a DNC call, and we couldn’t use a chat function and ask questions. It’s all fishy, and I just don’t think it’s right.”
“I’m not saying I want him gone by August,” they added. “I would not be surprised.”
Martin could be removed from the chairmanship either through a vote of no confidence, which would take two-thirds of the DNC to pass, or if senior leaders in the House and Senate pressure him to step down.
According to a source familiar, Martin told DNC members during a Thursday call that Paul Rivera, the Democratic strategist who authored the report, is no longer affiliated with the organization. Yet the damage has already been done.
“It’s a bad report,” said Achyuth Sarath, a former 2024 Democratic delegate. “I’ve written undergrad papers that are better than this report, and it’s 192 pages.”
“I think Ken Martin needs to seriously reevaluate how the DNC is handling its resources,” Sarath added after learning Rivera was an ally of Martin’s. “He’s had months to commission an actual paid autopsy report that would better equip us to win the midterms and the 2028 election, but instead, he’s been sitting on this poorly-written and unhelpful report. He’s talked about how we need to look into the root causes of 2024’s loss, but I’m failing to see any evidence of that type of action actually happening. I think it’s a little late to be going for infighting at this point, but I think the midterms will say a lot about whether or not this approach is working.”
Democratic strategist Sammy Kanter didn’t mince words about Martin’s excuse that the report wasn’t ready for public release.
“As for the concerns that the report wasn’t ready for release, it’s 2026. That report should have long been finalized,” Kanter said. “That in and of itself is a brand issue.”
Adding to their growing frustration with Martin, Democrats say the drama surrounding the autopsy is taking away attention from Trump’s handling of the Iran war, gas prices, and the East Wing ballroom construction project.
Even before the autopsy saga began, Martin struggled to rein in Hogg. The gun control advocate upset many by publicly wading into Democratic primary battles to endorse younger, more progressive candidates against senior incumbents. The drama eventually led to Hogg declining to run again as vice chairman after the full DNC body voted in June to hold new elections.
Martin has also led the DNC through several anemic fundraising quarters while serving as chairman.
The DNC brought in $11.4 million in March and reported $13.9 million in cash on hand, far below the $21.2 million the Republican National Committee raised and the $116.7 million in cash on hand they had during the same time period. The RNC raised $18.6 million in April, its best end-of-month cash on hand in history, and has a total of $123.8 million cash on hand. The DNC raised a little over $11 million and had about $14 million in the bank.
“I wish that my party were in better shape,” the DNC member said. “People will start to call for [Martin’s resignation], and the worst part about this is that it’s not going to be just the forever Ken haters. There are people who are going to see this moment and feel betrayed, and or try to save their own asses, save their own face.”
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) struck a more realistic tone when asked about Martin’s tenure at the DNC.
“I don’t think people know what a DNC chair does, and Ken Martin is good at being a DNC chair, but he’s not the leader of the party, per se,” Subramanyam told the Washington Examiner. “I think right now we don’t have a leader because we don’t have a majority anywhere, and so we have to all be leaders individually, and even at the local grassroots level, people need to step up and lead.”
As the fallout from the autopsy report spread, the DNC reportedly pushed state party chairs to express their support for Martin in conversations with the media.
“I support Chair Ken Martin and his strategic decision to release the DNC’s 2024 After Action Report,” Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), who is also a DNC associate chairwoman, said in a statement.
KEN MARTIN RELEASES DNC’S 2024 AUTOPSY AFTER PRESSURE FROM WITHIN
Michael Ceraso, a Democratic strategist who has worked on several presidential campaigns and is close to some DNC members, pushed back against the gatekeeping proclivities of the DNC but said he still supports Martin and rejected calls for his resignation.
“He’s a good dude trying to do something hard in a really tough circumstance,” he said. “Here’s my other thing: Why are you spending time f***ing s****ing on the DNC chair? What are you doing? How are you helping?”