DNC chairman says Democrats are playing the long game in Florida
The Democratic National Committee needs to build up its party infrastructure in Florida if it wants to control the U.S. House next decade, according to Chairman Ken Martin — who’s worried about the prospect of the solidly red, quickly growing state gaining four congressional seats at the expense of blue states after the 2030 census and reapportionment process.
But it remains to be seen whether the party’s anxiety about Florida’s future electoral importance will result in any serious investment in the state this year, given that Democrats have multiple viable paths to regaining control of the House without flipping seats in Florida.
Martin said the reason he stopped in Miami Sunday — the latest in a handful of visits to Florida since taking over as party chairman last February — was to meet with “stakeholders” and build Democratic momentum for Florida’s future national significance.
“You have to skate to where the puck will be, not where the puck is,” Martin told the Miami Herald. “It’s an important state and we have to be putting ourselves in a better position to compete here and that’s why we keep coming back.”
There was also “some fundraising involved.” He did not provide specifics, but his visit comes on the heels of Vice President and Republican National Committee Finance Chairman JD Vance’s fundraisers in Naples and Miami Beach earlier in the week.
The DNC is starting the midterm election year $100 million behind the Republican Party, according to campaign finance reports filed late last week. That comes after the party took a $15 million loan to invest in off-year elections last fall.
Florida’s Democratic Party is also lagging far behind Republicans in fundraising, holding just less than half a million cash on hand at the start of 2026 compared to the state Republican Party’s $2.1 million, new campaign finance reports show.
“There’s a lot of great Democratic supporters in this part of Florida and throughout the state who have been really generous to the Democratic Party over the years,” Martin said, adding that his primary reason for spending time in Florida is to prepare for the state’s future electoral power.
One question for Florida Democrats in 2026, however, is whether the money Florida’s big donors contribute to the party will lead to wins in their home state.
Martin insists that Democratic momentum from last fall’s off-year elections and backlash to Donald Trump’s policies is allowing the party to invest in places it would have previously written off.
“Given that overperformance, it allows us to expand the map deep into places in Florida that we might not have been thinking about, even at this point last year,” Martin said.
He pointed to a renewed focus on voter registration in the state and the DNC’s historic investment in state parties — each state party gets $17,500 a month, plus a $5,000 add-on for Republican-controlled states, the party announced last spring.
But the state’s failure to win a statewide election in the past seven years and 1.5-million-voter disadvantage has produced a self-replicating cycle of national political committees investing in states where they’re more likely to win instead, further cementing Florida Democrats’ difficulty competing.
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