After almost two years of genocide in Gaza, the Democratic Celebration’s once-unshakable assist for Israel is beginning to fracture. The occasion’s voters are loudly signaling that criticism of Israel isn’t solely acceptable however wanted—a shift seen most prominently in Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral major victory in New York.
Sadly, the Democratic elite—which has performed a vital function in enabling and perpetuating the slaughter in Gaza—continues to be clinging to the established order. And nowhere is that extra evident than in how Ken Martin, the just lately put in chair of the Democratic Nationwide Committee (DNC), is dealing with the problem.
As chair of the group that oversees the Democratic Celebration’s nationwide fundraising and election efforts, Martin is a vital and visual occasion chief. His statements and committee selections form nationwide perceptions of the occasion and affect which candidates and voters are valued come election time. But it surely appears he’s siding with the previous guard in relation to Israel.
In early August, The Intercept reported that Martin’s aides pressured 26-year-old pro-Palestine DNC delegate Allison Minnerly to water down a symbolic decision calling for the occasion to assist an instantaneous ceasefire and an arms embargo, to droop navy assist and acknowledge Palestine as a state.
When Minnerly refused, Martin publicly backed a competing decision that maintains a Biden-era dedication to advancing Israel’s “qualitative navy edge.” This decision was crafted with the enter of Democratic Majority for Israel, a bunch whose tremendous PAC worked to oust former Representatives Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush. The countermeasure reportedly has the assist of the complete DNC management prematurely of a vote on the upcoming assembly.
Martin most likely needs the Palestine-Israel situation would disappear. But it surely clearly gained’t—and because the occasion shifts round him, Martin has an pressing choice to make: Will he proceed the committee’s custom of obedience to AIPAC, the ADL, Democratic Majority for Israel, and different pro-Israel lobbyists, consultants, and donors? Or will the DNC do what isn’t solely morally simply however wildly popular with Democrats of all demographics throughout the nation, and embrace anti-genocide politics?
Many teams are pushing Martin to decide on the latter path.
Over the past a number of months, pro-Palestine advocacy organizations, together with the Institute for Center East Understanding Coverage Undertaking (IMEU), Justice Democrats, GenZ for Change, and IfNotNow have labored to persuade Martin and DNC govt director Roger Lau to maneuver the occasion towards its personal voters on Palestine and acknowledge the Harris marketing campaign’s dire method to Gaza within the 2024 election.
As one Harris marketing campaign staffer defined to The Nation, a senior official within the Harris marketing campaign knowledgeable voter engagement organizers originally of October 2024 that they have been to not to report voter suggestions about Gaza of their inside techniques.
This meant that the marketing campaign merely stopped partaking with voters involved about Gaza within the essential ultimate weeks main as much as the election, across the similar time that Kamala Harris embraced Liz and Dick Cheney and despatched Invoice Clinton to Michigan, the place he alienated the swing state’s Arab and Muslim voters by declaring that Israel had been “compelled” to kill Palestinian civilians in Gaza. “The thought course of within the marketing campaign with Muslim voters, younger voters, with anyone who was involved about Gaza was, OK, we’ll lose you, however we’ll decide up two elsewhere,” the staffer stated. Everyone knows what occurred after that.
In a letter from March, these teams cite January polling by YouGov and the IMEU Policy Project that discovered “ending Israel’s violence in Gaza” was the highest concern (29 p.c) of those that had voted for President Biden in 2020 and solid a poll for somebody apart from Harris in 2024. It notes that this was the case for 38 p.c of those voters in Arizona, 32 p.c in Michigan, 32 p.c in Wisconsin, and 36 p.c of voters beneath 45.
The polling additionally signifies that 56 p.c of Biden 2020 voters who didn’t vote for Harris say they would like to assist a candidate who voted to withhold weapons from Israel, whereas simply 16 p.c would like a candidate who voted towards withholding weapons.
The letter was timed to affect the drafting of the DNC’s “post-action” report on the 2024 election, which is due for publication within the coming months. The report, the letter stated, should embrace “an audit and clear clarification of the protocols that have been in place regarding voters who responded to canvassers, texts, and emails voicing concern about violence in Gaza and related information assortment practices.”
To IMEU Coverage Undertaking govt director Margaret DeReus, this report is a chance for the DNC to succeed in out to Democrats repelled by the occasion over the past two years. “When the Democratic Nationwide Committee releases its postelection evaluation of what went mistaken, it wants to indicate its voters and the general public that it’s studying from these errors by partaking significantly with the missteps that have been made,” she stated. “Which means recognizing the faults in nominee Harris’s platform pledging to proceed sending weapons to Israel throughout this genocide, and within the marketing campaign’s refusal to interact with voters—particularly younger folks and folks of coloration—whose cries for change went ignored.”
The case for the Democratic Celebration to align with pro-Palestine voters has solely been strengthened by occasions because the March letter. Not solely did Mamdani win the New York Metropolis mayoral major with a pro-Palestine message however, in accordance with new polling by Information for Progress and the IMEU Coverage Undertaking, voters supported him as a result of of this place.
The ballot discovered that 62 p.c of Mamdani voters discovered his assist for Palestinian rights to be vital and motivated their vote for him—a quantity that goes as much as 83 p.c amongst those that didn’t vote within the 2021 major. This was the third-most-motivating cause for a Mamdani vote behind his marketing campaign’s give attention to affordability and his plans to tax the rich and confront companies. As well as, it discovered that 78 p.c of major voters consider Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and 79 p.c assist proscribing weapons to Israel. (Martin has zigzagged in relation to Mamdani, who continues to be being saved at arm’s size by the occasion’s higher echelons. In a PBS interview in July, for example, he dismissed criticism of Mamdani’s choice to not condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” however quickly backtracked after teams just like the Anti-Defamation League and AIPAC objected.)
In response to an individual conversant in the matter, the DNC is now in discussions with the IMEU Coverage Undertaking relating to the problems raised within the March 2025 letter.
Nonetheless, it stays to be seen simply how receptive Martin will likely be to this argument.
In Might, Martin declared that assist for Israel is a foundational Democratic Celebration worth, telling the Jewish Democratic Council of America convention, “It’s so vital proper now for our occasion to face up with the Jewish neighborhood, to proceed to face up for Israel, to proceed to face up for humanity and to not overlook who we’re as Individuals.”
That is constant along with his report on Israel whereas chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Celebration, notably within the aftermath of the October 7 assaults.
On October 9, 2023, for instance, Martin condemned the Twin Cities DSA’s assertion of solidarity with Palestine as “disgusting” for its inclusion of the phrase “from the river to the ocean” (calling it “a chant utilized by extremists to assist the destruction of Israel”) and for failing to reference the murders of Israeli and American civilians. An hour later, he returned to X to describe it as a “rubbish antisemitic assertion.”
A couple of months later, Martin inspired pro-Israel activists to become involved in native precinct politics to offset “the acute voices in our occasion” who have been then organizing for a ceasefire resolution to be handed by the Minneapolis Metropolis Council. Martin and his state GOP counterpart joined a January 2024 Zoom call held by the Minnesota and the Dakotas Jewish Neighborhood Relations Council (JCRC)—which calls itself the “public affairs voice of the Jewish neighborhood” and had vigorously opposed the decision. The JCRC has opposed the outline of Israel’s warfare on Gaza as a genocide, claiming that it inverts each historical past and actuality and results in the demonization of Jews around the globe. The JCRC has additionally declared that Israel can’t be an apartheid state as a result of minorities reside inside its borders.
Throughout the name, Martin referenced these efforts in Minneapolis and instructed the attendees, “We have to all collectively get up and reject what we’re seeing right here and make our voices heard.… we simply actually implore all of you to take part, we want extra sane voices on this course of proper now.”
Within the spring and summer season of 2024, Martin then presided over the nation’s largest Uncommitted motion delegation.
Conversations with delegates, together with Minnesota Uncommitted chair Asma Mohammed, Democratic Socialist Caucus chair Samuel Doten, and commerce unionist Dan Engelhart, point out that their relationship with Martin was largely by the e-book and due to this fact higher than the poor relationships different delegations had with their very own state events. For instance, Martin didn’t fail to accurately record their votes, and didn’t attempt to forestall them from chatting with the press.
Nonetheless, in accordance with the delegates, the DFL repeatedly tried to scale back the visibility of Uncommitted within the lead-up to, and through, the conference.
“As we bought nearer and nearer, we may inform that Ken was involved about Minnesota’s picture due to [Minnesota governor and vice-presidential candidate] Tim Walz,” defined Mohammed.
Understanding that the digital camera was going to be on the Minnesota delegation, the choice was made to attenuate the visibility of the state’s 11 Uncommitted delegates. “We have been within the very again. Not solely did we have now the again row—we had safety guards on each side of our row,” Mohammed stated.
In a previous incident confirmed by Mohammed, Doten, and Engelhart, the DFL eliminated all references to Palestine from biographies and photographs within the DFL’s 2024 DNC booklet offered to the press.
In response to Engelhart, his preliminary biographical entry mentioned how he went from avoiding the subject of Palestine as a result of the problem was difficult and he didn’t need to seem antisemitic to his changing into an Uncommitted delegate and talking brazenly concerning the genocide in Gaza. He felt his story would assist transfer others like him. This was modified by the DFL to say that he was “keen about overseas affairs.” Engelhart objected to the edit, and his bio was in the end left clean.
Martin’s quick tenure as DNC chair has already been rocked by an embarrassing public feud, leaks about fundraising shortfalls, and hit pieces on his capability to unify the occasion. Perpetuating the Democratic institution’s immoral and unpopular assist for Israel is unlikely to assist.
Longtime DNC member and founding father of the Arab-American Institute James Zogby doesn’t anticipate Martin to grow to be an advocate for Palestine, nor does he anticipate the DNC to take a place on Gaza. (When Zogby tried to get the committee to sentence the Iraq Conflict in February 2003, the decision was shut down by the chair.) He pointed to a different drawback: the overwhelming affect of consultants and massive cash create the structural circumstances for pro-Israel teams to form the occasion.
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“Does anyone need to take the danger of supporting one thing that stops the $10 million donor from coming by? Does any person need to assist one thing if it’s going to chop the price range of the three main consulting teams whereas people who find themselves in these consulting teams sit on committees? They grow to be the in-house protectors of this tradition,” Zogby defined.
Take the SKDK PR group. In March 2025, Sludge reported that this influential Democratic PR firm formally registered with the Division of Justice as an agent for Israel’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs, permitting it to freely promote Israel to all main information networks and social media firms.
The company’s ties with the Democratic Celebration run deep: CEO Doug Thornell is a former DNC senior adviser, whereas its cofounder Anita Dunn was an adviser to Joe Biden by July 2024, to call just a few connections.
SKDK acquired tens of tens of millions of {dollars} to carry out PR companies for the Democrats throughout the 2024 election. Per Open Secrets, the DNC itself paid SKDK over $400,000 throughout September and October 2024, whereas the state Democratic events of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, and Wisconsin paid a mixed $35 million to the agency between August and October. These have been all swing states that the Democrats misplaced.
Happily, putting off such companies aligns with Martin’s marketing campaign promise to finish “profitable contracts to wealthy DC consultants who aren’t innovating with new methods to succeed in, talk with, and win over voters.” After Martin’s election, a DNC spokesperson reiterated this promise, stating that the DNC intends to undergo marketing consultant contracts “line by line.” Time will inform if Martin really follows by—or is, on the very least, clear about whom precisely the DNC has been paying—or whether or not he punts.
Marketing campaign finance is one other space that Martin should handle.
Within the March 2025 letter, the IMEU Coverage Undertaking explicitly pushes for the DNC to assist a ban on tremendous PAC spending in Democratic primaries, “together with Republican-backed tremendous PACs like AIPAC’s United Democracy Undertaking that spend tens of millions of {dollars} to defeat Democratic candidates whose views align with the vast majority of Democratic voters.”
This demand is according to a recent letter despatched to Martin and Senator Chuck Schumer from a bunch of progressive senators led by Bernie Sanders. The senators name on the occasion to “start cleansing our personal home” by banning tremendous PACs and darkish cash from occasion primaries.
Martin seems considerably receptive to this situation. Forward of the identical upcoming August DNC assembly for which he’s opposing a ceasefire decision, he intends to introduce a decision that calls on the DNC to decide to “eliminating limitless company and darkish cash in our presidential nominating course of within the present 2028 presidential cycle,” to encourage Democratic officeholders in any respect ranges to scale back the affect of company and darkish cash by rejecting such donations, and to kind a committee to supply a report on how to do that by summer season 2026.
As David Moore notes, the proposal doesn’t point out tremendous PACs and is gentle on particulars about enforcement. Notably, a extra robust decision towards darkish cash and tremendous PACs proposed by Zogby and former Nevada Democratic Celebration chair Judith Whitmer was quashed by the DNC Resolutions Committee in 2022. On the similar time, any potential ban on darkish cash by the DNC wouldn’t impression primaries or state and native elections, that are governed by state parties.
Whereas several states have just lately taken steps on their very own to enact marketing campaign finance reform, DNC member and Our Revolution cofounder Larry Cohen has argued that the DNC ought to assist facilitate this course of by funding analysis into the ways in which state events can amend their charters to implement such restrictions.
Sadly, it’s not shocking that the DNC management would put ahead an anti–darkish cash decision and on the similar time seek the advice of a corporation that runs a prominent pro-Israel tremendous PAC on a decision for a similar assembly.
As he stated in his first handle as DNC chair, “Once I speak concerning the state of the Democratic Celebration, I typically communicate concerning the impression of perceptions—what voters see, really feel, and sense.”
Proper now, voters see, really feel, and sense a celebration that extra aggressively opposes its personal anti-genocide voters and a brand new wave of progressive, pro-Palestine politicians than the authoritarian regime in Washington. Martin and the DNC are a part of the issue. It’s of their curiosity to vary that.
On this second of disaster, we want a unified, progressive opposition to Donald Trump.
We’re beginning to see one take form within the streets and at poll containers throughout the nation: from New York Metropolis mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s marketing campaign targeted on affordability, to communities defending their neighbors from ICE, to the senators opposing arms shipments to Israel.
The Democratic Celebration has an pressing option to make: Will it embrace a politics that’s principled and standard, or will it proceed to insist on shedding elections with the out-of-touch elites and consultants that bought us right here?
At The Nation, we all know which aspect we’re on. Each day, we make the case for a extra democratic and equal world by championing progressive leaders, lifting up actions combating for justice, and exposing the oligarchs and companies profiting on the expense of us all. Our unbiased journalism informs and empowers progressives throughout the nation and helps convey this politics to new readers prepared to affix the combat.
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Sincerely,
Bhaskar Sunkara
President, The Nation
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