THE HILL - Democrats’ gains shake up Republicans - by Ken Martin, opinion contributor - 02/07/26 11:00 AM ET

 THE  HILL

Democrats’ gains shake up Republicans

by Ken Martin, opinion contributor - 

02/07/26 11:00 AM ET

Republicans woke up in a panic last Sunday. Why? Because the night before, Democrat Taylor Rehmet had pulled off a 32-point swing in a Texas state senate district that President Trump won by 17 points in 2024.

That’s right — in Texas.

Sunday was also my first anniversary as chair of the Democratic National Committee. Frankly, I couldn’t have asked for a better gift.

When I was elected to this job, Democrats were reeling. We had just suffered a gut-punch loss, one that left people asking whether our party still understood the country we were fighting to lead.

For me, that question has never been abstract.

I’m the oldest son of a single mom who struggled to keep our family afloat. I watched her work harder than anyone I knew, make impossible choices, and still worry whether bills would get paid. Politics wasn’t theoretical in our house. It showed up in the rent, the groceries, the cost of health care, and whether the system treated us like an afterthought or as someone worth fighting for.

After a year of Trump, millions of Americans have stories just like mine.

I think Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) put it best when she said that those closest to pain should be closest to power.

This idea — simple, moral and demanding — has guided how I’ve approached this job. Because if the Democratic Party loses sight of people who know struggle firsthand, then no amount of clever messaging or campaign tactics will save us.

Instead, if we organize around working people, then we can rebuild not just our majority, but our purpose.

Today, Democrats have real wind at our backs.

Since Trump retook office, Republicans have flipped zero state legislative seats. Democrats have flipped 26 seats. In Little League, we would call that a mercy rule win. Our candidates have won races at a faster clip than we saw during the sweeping 2018 midterm victories.

After our victory in Texas, people called it a political earthquake. And it is. 

But here’s the thing: We’ve seen these kinds of earthquakes every month — hell, nearly every week — for the past year.

In Iowa, Democrats flipped a state Senate seat, breaking the Republican supermajority.

In Pennsylvania, Democrats won a district in Lancaster County for the first time in over 130 years and swept every county seat in conservative Bucks County.

In Georgia, two Democrats won statewide, non-federal races for the first time in nearly 20 years. Public utility commissioner seats. And do you know what our candidates ran on? Bringing costs down.

In Mississippi, we put real resources on the ground to flip two seats and break a 13-year Republican supermajority.

In Miami, Democrats won back the mayor’s office after nearly 30 years of Republican control.

In Houston, we flipped the school board from red to blue.

And of course, last November, our party pulled off a Blue Sweep. Democratic governors in Virginia and New Jersey. Supreme Court justices in Pennsylvania. Proposition 50 in California to fight Trump’s midterm election rigging. None of this happened by accident. 

At the DNC, we’ve followed a simple philosophy to help Democrats win at every level: organize everywhere. Not just one region. Not in a few battleground states. Everywhere.

No longer is the Democratic Party closing up shop between presidential election seasons. Just the opposite. We’re investing the money, resources and talent to build lasting political power — in red states, purple states and blue states — to win congressional elections, state races, county seats, and mayoralties. 

To be sure, we still have a long way to go. We have to rebuild trust. Earn credibility, not assume it. Register more voters. Show up where we’ve been absent. And, most importantly, prove to people that when we say we’ll fight for them, we mean it. 

But unlike Donald Trump, we don’t call affordability a hoax. We know costs are too high because we’re living it.

Unlike Republicans, we don’t think billionaire ballrooms and Mar-a-Lago parties are more important than jobs that let people work hard and buy a home.

And unlike Stephen Miller, JD Vance and Kristi Noem, we don’t believe the federal government should invade American communities with masked federal agents operating without transparency or accountability.

What we are seeing now in my home state of Minnesota is not law enforcement. It’s intimidation. It’s using cruelty instead of the Constitution to govern.

Yet Minnesotans have met the moment with courage. With people showing up for their neighbors. With faith leaders opening doors. With communities insisting — peacefully, lawfully and relentlessly — that dignity is not negotiable and that rights don’t disappear because someone in Washington says so.

As I walked into the DNC this week, I told our team this: Democracy doesn’t only live in marble buildings or court opinions. It lives in people who refuse to look away when something is wrong.

In this moment, I think about my mom. About how she never had the luxury of giving up when things got hard. About how hope, for her, was never abstract. It was built slowly, through discipline, sacrifice, and showing up even when the odds weren’t kind.

Across the country, people who have had every reason to disengage are stepping forward. Candidates are running where no one expected them to. Voters are speaking up. The ground is shifting, quietly, but unmistakably.

There is still a long road ahead.

When Democrats take back Congress this year, and I believe we will, the real work will begin.

We will govern with the seriousness this moment demands and the humility to remember who sent us here.

I welcome that pressure. We should. Pressure is what keeps a party honest. It’s what reminds us that power is not something you possess, it’s something you’re trusted with. 

And that, for me, is where hope begins. 

Ken Martin is chair of the Democratic National Committee.

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