Since former Vice President Kamala Harris got walloped by President Donald Trump, the Democrat Party has been experiencing severe problems, one of them being the inability to raise funds.While the Republican Party has managed to bank more than $120 million ahead of this year’s midterm elections, Democrats have stuggled mightily just to get out of debt.
But now, the party’s money problems may actually be much worse than outsiders realize.
The Democratic National Committee required members of its leadership team to sign non-disclosure agreements before a recent meeting focused on the party’s finances, according to two people familiar with the discussions who spoke to Axios.
The requirement marked a departure from past practice for senior party officers and highlighted what Axios described as DNC Chairman Ken Martin’s concern over the party’s financial challenges and ongoing criticism of his leadership.
According to the sources, the DNC requested the signed agreements before a private meeting of senior officers held late last month.
Martin has faced growing skepticism from some Democratic donors, party operatives, and even members of the Democratic National Committee over his leadership, particularly as the Republican National Committee maintains a significant fundraising advantage ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
According to the DNC’s latest campaign finance filings through the end of May, the committee had nearly $15 million in cash on hand while carrying approximately $18 million in debt.
By contrast, Axios said, the RNC has about $125 million on hand and zero debt.
According to people close to Martin, he has spent months privately and publicly defending the Democratic National Committee’s financial position amid ongoing scrutiny of the party’s finances.
In a fiery “Pod Save America” interview this year, Martin argued that “to suggest that we’re not raising money is inaccurate” and “what we’re doing that’s a little different … is we’re spending it.”
A Supreme Court ruling last month has heightened concerns among Democrats about the party’s financial position heading into the midterm elections.
The decision eliminated limits on how much political parties can spend in coordination with candidates and allows parties to purchase advertising at the lower rates available to individual campaigns.
As a result, the RNC’s fundraising advantage could significantly reduce the financial edge many Democratic candidates previously held heading into the fall campaign.
“DNC officers are high-ranking members of Martin’s team, not employees who regularly sign NDAs,” Axios clarified.
The DNC leadership meeting for which the non-disclosure agreements were requested took place on June 25, five days before the Supreme Court issued its ruling.
Chris Lowe, the DNC’s national finance co-chair, told Axios the committee’s push for NDAs is “a non-issue.”
“Having officers and attendees at board meetings be party to confidentiality agreements is consistent with standard practice in the corporate world,” he claimed further.
He added that “all senior staff at the DNC are party to confidentiality agreements, and it would be political malpractice not to have them in place when finance and political strategy are being discussed at the highest level.”
A DNC official said Martin and the committee have raised more money this election cycle than the party did in 2017 and 2018, the last midterm cycle in which Democrats entered the election without controlling the White House.
However, the official also noted that most campaigns and political committees are raising more money than they did in 2018 because the cost of running campaigns has increased significantly in recent years.