It's a tale of two parties: One is amassing a fortune in preparation for the 2026 midterms, and the other is close to applying for a line of credit. As the Republican National Committee (RNC) sits happily on $80 million as of June 2025, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) re-counts its $15 million, hoping for a different outcome. C'mon, faithful progressives, why the cold shoulder and the locked-down wallet?
Some speculate that burnout is the cause after the weirdest DNC campaign in recent history. Others see the party as completely out of touch and reworking the same poor 2016 strategy.
Pershing Square Capital Management CEO Bill Ackman, along with tech giant and former Pete Buttigieg supporter Jacob Helberg, and prominent former Democrats such as Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (who joined the MAGA/MAHA movement) defected in 2024. None of them could condone where the party was headed.
No matter who or what is to blame, big donors are crossing their arms with a wait-and-see attitude.
It's Kind of Embarrassing
Financially, the DNC blew through most of its coffers ($15.8 million) trying to pay off the Kamala Harris campaign bills, which were tragically underreported. That would be problem number one. Number two, those big donors — major tech people such as Laurene Powell Jobs, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, and venture capitalist Michael Moritz — have not written a big check at all this year. Not to be excluded from the stingy list are Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson and his wife Erica, who gave nearly $4 million last election cycle; Tom Steyer, who donated at least $1.6 million; and former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who gifted more than $1 million last time around.
But the guys on the opposing side were all over it: Newly right-wing venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz are powering GOP-aligned PACs this year, enough to at least keep the lights on, unlike the DNC.
"We are six months in and we're drowning," a source in the know with the Democratic National Committee told the New York Post about fundraising fears. "We have no clear path or plan. The midterms are going to come before we know it, and then we're going to be really (expletive)."
Another donor confided in The Hill, "They want us to spend money, and for what? For no message, no organization, no forward thinking."
According to a Politico analysis of the party's filings, only 47 donors gave the maximum contribution to the DNC as of June 2025. The DNC can thank ActBlue for raising $8.6 million online from 254,000 small donors in March. But even the flaming progressive platform only culled half of that from 157,000 people. That's not going in the right direction — unless you are right-leaning, of course.
The third leg of the DNC fundraising stool hinges on its president, Ken Martin. Many Democrats don't think he is taking a strong role in calming the nerves of contributors. Some donors feel Martin needs to reach out, schedule, show up, and encourage the party benefactors and grassroots people to vent about 2024. Maybe get the angst out of the system, sing Kumbaya, and hit the reset button.
But not everyone is mad at Martin. "I understand that donors want some kind of a reckoning," Steve Schale, a Florida-based Democratic strategist, told Politico. "But I also think that the kind of state party building that I think [DNC Chair] Ken [Martin] wants to do at the DNC is really vital to our success. And so, I hope people kind of get over themselves pretty quick."
Martin might be headed to the savings and loan for that line of credit. Tom Perez, who led the party from 2017 to 2021, has already set a precedent. The RNC also took out a loan in 2014.
All Aboard! DNC Dysfunction Junction
The Democratic Party has been infighting for years over who will control its direction: from shoving Bernie Sanders out in 2016, to the progressive surge against the old guard, through the disastrous Joe Biden campaign, and the installation of Kamala Harris. How the party treated RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard convinced many people to walk away and revisit core values.
This year continued the trend when the DNC installed David Hogg and Malcolm Kenyatta as vice chairs of the organization – a play to win the hearts of 18- to 25-year-old voters. The DNC Credentials Committee made a complaint against Hogg and Kenyatta for violating the party's gender parity rules, which demand equal inclusion for women, non-binary, and trans people.
The blessed union disintegrated as Hogg went wild with his ideas, then defected and started a fund to primary out those who had disappointed the man-cub.
And could it get any worse than losing two veteran DNC members and top union leaders: American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) President Lee Saunders? Weingarten resigned because she did not see a big-tent approach, and Saunders' departure was because he felt a need to focus on protecting his union employees.
The Democrats Still Blame Trump
If you ask most Democrats, it is all Trump’s fault. It is the MAGA movement that they cannot stop – try as they might. It is the hope that things will get better under an America First agenda. But if the members of the Democratic National Committee would ask themselves, “What do the American people want?” it might alter the nature of their policies and messaging, and help shape a real plan for 2026 and beyond.
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