{"id":48400,"date":"2026-05-23T12:30:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T19:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=48400"},"modified":"2026-05-23T12:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T19:30:14","slug":"not-up-to-the-task-calls-mount-for-ken-martin-to-resign-over-2024-dnc-autopsy-debacle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/05\/23\/not-up-to-the-task-calls-mount-for-ken-martin-to-resign-over-2024-dnc-autopsy-debacle\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Not Up to the Task\u2019: Calls Mount for Ken Martin to Resign Over 2024 DNC Autopsy Debacle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"dnc\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin makes a speech during the press conference for the DNC site visit at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado, on May 6, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by Hyoung Chang\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe DNC should select a new leader who demonstrates competence, creativity, moral clarity, and a relentless commitment to actually changing the broken Democratic Party brand.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Prager<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

May 22, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disastrous release<\/a> of the Democratic National Committee\u2019s 2024 election<\/a> \u201cautopsy\u201d report on Thursday has brought about a reckoning for the committee\u2019s chair, Ken Martin, who is facing calls to resign from legislators and other influential figures in the party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 192-page report<\/a>, written by strategist Paul Rivera in the wake of former Vice President Kamala Harris<\/a>\u2019 loss to President Donald Trump<\/a>, was panned<\/a> as amateurish and incomplete, even more than 18 months after the election. Rivera was reportedly fired on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"'Why<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Why Wouldn\u2019t You Just Release It?\u2019: DNC Chair Confronted Over Buried 2024 Election Autopsy<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"2024<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Almost Worthless\u2019: Progressives Rip 2024 Autopsy the DNC Didn\u2019t Want You To See<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Aside from being filled with glaring spelling and factual errors and containing several unfinished sections and self-contradicting annotations, it neglected key issues widely believed to have contributed to the Democratic nominee\u2019s defeat: Most acutely, her continued backing<\/a> of Israel as it perpetrated a genocide<\/a> in Gaza<\/a>, her inability to address working- and middle-class voters\u2019 concerns about affordability, and the shambolic attempt<\/a> by former President Joe Biden<\/a> to run for a second term despite his old age and his earlier indications he would serve for only four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Democrats now see it as a damning indictment of Martin, who was elected as DNC<\/a> chair last year in part on promises to conduct a thorough and transparent review of the party\u2019s defeat. Not helping was his sudden pivot<\/a> in late 2025 to attempt to bury the report he once championed, only releasing it this week after it leaked to CNN<\/a> despite mounting pressure from party members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday morning, Axios quoted<\/a> an ideological mix of Democratic legislators describing the report\u2019s release as the final straw for Martin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cHe should resign,\u201d Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) told Axios, citing \u201chis lack of leadership\u201d and saying it is \u201cutterly nuts it took us this long to release the autopsy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a radio interview Thursday, Rep. Mark Pocan<\/a> (D-Wis.) said in response to a caller who argued Martin should be replaced: \u201cI agree… Having what we have right now is not doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas) told Semafor that \u201cthere doesn\u2019t seem to be a plan to turn things around and the clock is ticking… I believe it\u2019s time for him to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Despite a push by Martin\u2019s allies to arm state party chairs with talking points expressing that they are \u201cfully confident in his leadership,\u201d NOTUS reported<\/a> that inside private DNC group chats and one-on-one conversations, dissension is brewing, and there is even talk of forcing a vote of no confidence to oust the chairman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople feel gaslit\u201d by Martin\u2019s flip-flopping, one unnamed DNC member told the outlet. \u201cYou kept telling people it was coming, then when you didn\u2019t release it, you didn\u2019t even tell everyone the real reason why.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile I don\u2019t believe that there are enough votes to pass a vote of no confidence yet, I think there\u2019s more of a permission structure now to have a more open conversation about it,\u201d said another member who NOTUS described as an ally of Martin\u2019s. \u201cIf they think this is going to make things go away, no, this is only going to ramp up now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X post: https:\/\/x.com\/danpfeiffer\/status\/2057538111262089387?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2057538111262089387%7Ctwgr%5E57e8e9a02b61980808f833ebc79d4b4c2c0dadcc%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fken-martin-resign<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the hope of many in the party\u2019s grassroots, who said the entire saga demonstrated Martin\u2019s unfitness for a role with major responsibilities as Democrats head into existentially important elections in 2026 and 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dan Pfeiffer\u2014a former Obama administration<\/a> staffer whose Pod Save America podcast cohosts held<\/a> Martin\u2019s feet to the fire as he fought to keep the autopsy hidden\u2014called<\/a> the release \u201ca disaster of his own making.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t pick a qualified person to run the autopsy. The fact that he was apparently shocked by the work product shows there was no oversight of the process,\u201d Pfeiffer said on social media<\/a>. \u201cOnce he saw that the report was poorly done, he just decided to start lying to everyone about why it wasn\u2019t being released.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn \u201828, the DNC will set the primary calendar, decide how delegates are awarded, sponsor the debates, and put on the convention,\u201d he said. \u201cIf no one trusts the DNC, it will be harder to unite the party around the eventual nominee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X post: https:\/\/x.com\/amandalitman\/status\/2057529442780529088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2057529442780529088%7Ctwgr%5E57e8e9a02b61980808f833ebc79d4b4c2c0dadcc%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fken-martin-resign<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amanda Litman, the president of Run For Something, a group that recruits progressive candidates for office, said<\/a> in a video posted to social media Thursday that putting together a report composed of \u201cpure gibberish,\u201d without access to any of the underlying interviews or materials that buoyed its conclusions, called into question the DNC\u2019s ability to be \u201ca fair, competent… conductor of the Democratic presidential primary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKen Martin is not up to the task of being DNC chair\u2014the most important part of which is preparing to run the presidential primary process with trust and competency\u2014and should resign,\u201d she added on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Hogg, who served as the DNC vice chair in 2025 before being pushed<\/a> out by Martin over his efforts to support primary challengers against some entrenched party elders, said<\/a> the autopsy saga was a \u201cdemoralizing joke\u201d for the party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a release from his political action committee, Leaders We Deserve, Hogg said, \u201cMartin 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\u00a0Democratic Party<\/a>\u00a0brand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Prager<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Prager is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin makes a speech during the press conference for the DNC site visit at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado, on May 6, 2026. \u00a0(Photo by Hyoung Chang\/The Denver Post) \u201cThe DNC should select a new leader who demonstrates competence, creativity, moral clarity, and a relentless… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1930],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48400"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48401,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48400\/revisions\/48401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}