Ken Martin Just Put the DNC’s Own Headquarters Up as Collateral

Ken Martin ran out of cash.

So the DNC chairman pledged the party's Washington headquarters to a bank.

What Martin got in return explains exactly how broke the Democratic Party has become.

Democrats Mortgaged Their Building to Borrow $15 Million

Federal Election Commission filings show the DNC ended June with $16.3 million in cash and $18.5 million in debt – a hole of roughly $2.2 million just over three months from Election Day.

To cover it, Martin took out a $15 million credit line and put the party's own headquarters up as collateral, the biggest loan the DNC has ever carried during an off year.

The Republican National Committee holds $128.5 million in cash.

Zero debt.

That is not a gap.

That is nearly an 8-to-1 cash advantage for Republicans entering the most consequential midterm of the Trump era.

For context, the DNC entered the 2022 midterms with $30.5 million in cash and roughly $420,000 in debt.

This cycle, the picture is inverted.

One anonymous DNC member told NOTUS that Ken Martin has been "gaslighting" the committee about its finances.

Martin is also fighting an internal HR complaint after reportedly throwing a phone toward a staffer's desk in early July, RedState reported.

Democrats' own veterans went on the record.

Donna Brazile told The New York Times the situation was dire.

"Ken needs help – H-E-L-P," Brazile said.

Rufus Gifford, who ran finance for Kamala Harris' 2024 campaign, warned on Substack that the DNC is "spiraling towards irrelevance."

These are lifelong Democrats saying this about their own party chairman.

Ken Martin Spent $840,000 on Islands That Cannot Vote

The DNC has funneled roughly $840,000 since 2025 to party organizations in Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa.

Not one of those territories casts an electoral vote.

When Pod Save America host Jon Favreau confronted Martin about it directly, Martin answered: "we organize everywhere we can win anywhere."

No one passed that message to Democrats running in the competitive House districts that will actually decide the majority.

The DNC has already informed congressional campaign committees there will be no customary transfers this cycle.

No money for the House.

No money for the Senate.

Democrats in swing districts are on their own – while the national party keeps writing checks to the Northern Mariana Islands.

The DNC has also asked vendors to hold their invoices until after Election Day.

Between January 2025 and May 2026, the party spent about $7 million more than it raised, according to its own FEC filings.

The National Republican Congressional Committee ended June with $92.7 million in cash.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had $79 million.

Major Democratic donors are now routing money straight to individual candidates, bypassing the national committee entirely.

What a $600 Million Cash Gap Means for November

The RNC, Republican congressional committees and Trump-aligned super PACs held roughly $1 billion combined entering the final 100 days.

Democrats reported $404 million across all equivalent organizations.

A recent Supreme Court ruling eliminated limits on coordinated party-candidate spending – converting that $600 million gap directly into television ads, field staff and turnout machines in the 18 toss-up House districts that will decide the majority.

Democrats need a wave comparable to 2018, when Republicans lost 41 House seats in Trump's first midterm.

Michigan and Wisconsin will be decided by ground game and television, and the RNC can afford both.

They need that wave with a national committee that is asking vendors to wait, wiring checks to islands that do not vote, and fighting an HR complaint against its own chairman.

Ken Martin published a Substack defending every decision.

He called it investing in "work required to win in 2025, 2026 and beyond."

The RNC has $128 million in cash and not one dollar of debt.

The DNC has a mortgaged building and a chairman his own party's veterans are publicly begging to get help.

The party that promised to save democracy just put the deed to its only building on the line to survive the next 90 days.

Sources:

• Staff, "DNC Takes Out Record $15 Million Loan Using Headquarters as Collateral," Fox News, July 27, 2026.
• Staff, "Cash-Strapped DNC Shelled Out More Than $800K to Non-Voting Territories Like Virgin Islands While in Debt," Fox News, August 2026.
• Joseph Chalfant, "Democrats Mortgage Headquarters for $15 Million to Bail Out of Their Financial Fiasco," Townhall, July 26, 2026.
• Nick Arama, "Report: More Turmoil at the DNC With Leaks, Tantrums, and Phone-Throwing Drama," RedState, July 26, 2026.
• Staff, "Broke and Broken Democrats Are on Course to Snatch Defeat From the Jaws of Victory in Crucial Midterm Elections," Yahoo News, 2026.
• Staff, "DNC Drowns in Debt While Ken Martin Faces Revolt — and Democratic Candidates Rake in Cash Without Him," American Almanac, 2026.
• Federal Election Commission, Democratic National Committee Filings, FEC.gov, 2026.