State, national Democrats meet in Little Rock to sketch out party's future
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin leads a meeting of the DNC Executive Committee in Little Rock on May 30, 2025. (Screen grab from livestream)
Ahead of a meeting of the Democratic National Committee's Executive Committee in Little Rock on Friday, DNC chair Ken Martin said the national party is committing the largest financial assistance to state Democratic parties ever.
'The DNC will push out over a million dollars every month to the state parties,' Martin said in an interview. That includes $22,500 a month to the Arkansas Democratic Party to help it mobilize its efforts to improve the party's position in the Natural State, he said.
'Arkansas is one of the only states where we saw legislative gains (in 2024),' he said. Democrats gained a single seat in the 100-member Arkansas House in the state's only majority-Latino district last year.
'There's real opportunity for us, but that means we have to take advantage of it. Arkansas is really an important part of the calculus of how we build our future,' Martin said.
Little Rock was a hub of Democratic Party activity this week. The Association of State Democratic Committees met Wednesday and Thursday, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The DNC Executive Committee met Friday at the Doubletree Hotel on Markham.
At Friday's meeting, Martin talked about steps he's taking to make the party more transparent and democratic in the wake of Kamala Harris' loss to Donald Trump and the election of a narrow Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. He also presented lists of his nominees for various party committees that will be voted on when the DNC meets in August.
Martin's remarks in the meeting echoed his comments in an interview with the Arkansas Advocate Friday morning.
He acknowledged that Democrats are not popular with many voters and that the party faces a crisis.
'People don't have faith and trust in the party,' he said.
Asked what will change people's minds, Martin cited Missouri, where measures on paid family leave, minimum wage and abortion protections were on last year's ballot.
'All of them passed overwhelmingly… Those same voters went down the ticket and voted for Trump and independents. So clearly, the policies that we support as Democrats are wildly popular throughout the country. What isn't popular is the Democratic Party … so for us, when we talk to voters and make an appeal to them, we need to talk to them about the issues that they already know will make a material difference in the lives of their families and communities,' he said.
He also said party leaders need to change their Washington, D.C.-oriented mindset.
'We have to actually understand that some of these areas that we've lost over time are because we didn't make the investment of time, energy and money. We stopped organizing. We stopped working in places like Arkansas in a meaningful way. As a result they become red,' Martin said.
'We didn't come here just because Little Rock is beautiful. We came to send a message,' he said. 'I've watched Arkansas change over the years, and I know we can change it again.'
He said he's focused on rebuilding the party infrastructure, especially in Republican-controlled states like Arkansas. He noted that political power in the U.S. is shifting to the South, where six of the 10 fastest-growing states are.
'If we don't lay down a foundation here, we won't be prepared to meet that moment when it comes upon us. I don't want to be caught flatfooted when the map shifts. If we do get caught flatfooted, we could be in a permanent minority for a long time.'
He cited research that showed public perceptions of the two political parties have changed.
'A majority of Americans now believe that the Republican Party best represents the interests of the working class and poor and the Democratic Party is the party of the wealthy and elites. Just to prove the point, the only two groups we overperformed with in the presidential campaign were college-educated voters and wealthy households.
'That's not sustainable,' the DNC chair said.
Democrats need to focus on an economic agenda that gives people some hope that better days are in front of them not behind them, he said.
'It's about focusing on an agenda that will give people a sense that we see them, we hear them and we've got some ideas on how we can actually improve your lives,' he added. 'We have to give them a sense that we give a damn about them and their families and we're going to fight for them.'
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