DNC is ‘Dead Broke’

Democrats are hoping to retake control of the House in the upcoming midterm elections, but they are going to have to do it without much help from the Democratic National Committee. 

Federal records show the DNC entering the year with just $400,000. The committee is “dead broke” tweeted The Intercept’s Ryan Grim. 

The DNC pulled in just $3.8 million last July (a 10-year low) and ended the year with $6.5 million in the bank. That would be great if it wasn’t $6 million in debt.

The DNC has tried to mollify a concerned voter base by insisting that donors are more likely to give money to individual candidates than to the organization, but this claim does not ring true for the RNC, which in 2017 raised a record-breaking $31.6 million.

The truth is, the DNC is struggling to obtain funds following its devastating loss to president Trump and the email hack that exposed pro-Clinton bias within the DNC.   

Blame for the bias landed on former chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who resigned in July 2016. Last November, former interim chairwoman Donna Brazile accused Hillary Clinton of “rigging the system” and using her resources to control the DNC. She blamed the whole situation on Wasserman Schultz, who “hadn’t been very interested in controlling the party.” 

The DNC is also struggling with internal discord following the election of Tom Perez as chairman and – more recently – accusations that it helped fund the infamous Steele dossier that was used to obtain a warrant on former Trump adviser Carter Page.    

Donors are refusing to write checks until they see a clear direction from the DNC. For the first time in decades, DNC members have been asked to personally contribute $1,000 to the organization.   

“Donors…are so over the party,” says Nebraska party chair Jane Kleeb. “Everybody thinks that some magic three-page document and some magic tagline is going to turn everything around for us. But this is very typical work.”

Editor’s note: This is a grave situation for the Democrats, especially since the midterms are up in the air to this extent.