Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said on Nov. 6 that the party’s decision to spend early in state parties, rather than save its money for the final weeks, delivered Democrats’ midterm wins and built a foundation for the 2028 presidential race.
“We knew that campaigns aren’t won in the final weeks with expensive TV ads,” Martin said during a virtual briefing with DNC staff and supporters on Friday. “Instead of hoarding our money until the end, we invested it early and often in the proven ways to build a movement.”
He took a jab at Elon Musk, whose political spending backed Republicans across the country, especially in Texas’s key U.S. Senate Race. “Just ask Elon Musk how he’s doing with that strategy.”
Martin called the Nov. 3 results “the most historic midterm election in the 198-year history of the Democratic Party.”
Democrats won control of the House and Senate, flipped seats across the South, and won the governor’s race in Texas and other previously GOP-led states.
He said the party started putting money into every state party last year, with a bonus for states under Republican control, and opened full-time field offices months before the election.
Sarah Sterner, the DNC’s national coordinated campaign director, said the committee has put $1 million a month into state parties, totaling more than $19 million.
The DNC also reached out to more than 450,000 voters who backed Democrats in 2020 but sat out in 2024, according to Lorenza Ramirez, the DNC’s national organizing director.
She said staff held more than 10,000 conversations with those voters in more than 60 congressional districts and passed what they heard along to campaigns.
Martin said Democrats won back voters who had moved away from the party in 2024, including Latino voters, young voters, and black voters.
DNC officials said they targeted four states without a Senate race this year that they expect to be 2028 battlegrounds: Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Democrats won full control of state government in all four on Nov. 3, the DNC said.
“We can’t just tear down this infrastructure and start from scratch ahead of 2028,” Martin said. “We need to keep building momentum.”
Martin said Democrats would now “cross off Congress from our to-do list” and turn to winning back the White House. He also said the party’s success came from not tying itself to one figure.
“Results like we saw on Tuesday are what happens when Democrats choose to be a truly national party,” he said. “We don’t owe our allegiance to a single person or a single president.”
Martin said that come January, more than 180 million Americans will live in states where Democrats hold the governor’s office and both legislative chambers, including new Democratic trifectas in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Arizona.
Sterner said Democrats flipped 12 state legislative chambers on Nov. 3 and broke six Republican supermajorities. Martin put the total number of state legislative seats Democrats flipped at more than 500.
Shelby Wiltz, the DNC’s national political director, said early voting was 30 percent higher nationally than in 2024. The DNC also ran a new voter registration program in Arizona and Nevada this year that trained more than 100 local fellows, according to Ramirez.
Before 2028, the DNC plans to focus on three governor’s races in 2027, in Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Martin said he considers those states now “in play.”
“I hope that 2026 has taught everyone that investing in the South is more important now than ever,” Wiltz said on the call.
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