Hundreds of thousands of dollars in Democratic National Committee funding increases will hit the bank accounts of state parties starting this month, injecting much-needed cash into state-level coffers.
The money is appreciated, Democratic leaders told NOTUS, but it just will not go very far.
The DNC will increase monthly payments to state parties by $5,000 for blue states and $10,000 for red states as part of the State Partnership Program the party announced in April. That brings monthly transfers to $17,500 for blue states and $22,500 for red states — the DNC’s largest month-to-month investment into state parties in history, totaling over $1 million per month.
“The boom and bust political cycles are devastating for recruiting talent and recruiting candidates and being able to fund these off year, down-ballot races,” said Libby Schneider, deputy executive director of the DNC. “How do you build relationships with people if you have a staff of two for a state that’s 800 miles wide? You just can’t.”
The DNC has accurately identified the problem, but solving it will cost significantly more than several thousand extra dollars a month, state leaders said
The DNC is having a tough fundraising year, falling significantly behind the Republican party over the summer. At the state level, party leaders say big donors are skeptical after Democrats suffered bruising losses in the 2024 cycle and, without consistent financing, they cannot build the party infrastructure to prove they are worth investing in.
“It is a chicken and egg, and we’re still suffering, but I can’t keep the capacity without the staff,” Lauren Craig, the executive director of the Oklahoma Democratic Party, told NOTUS. “It’s very difficult, and especially when we got hit hard with the post-Kamala backlash of donors canceling all of their ActBlue monthly recurring donations.”
“We’ve had major donor after major donor retaliate against the DNC by cutting their donations to our party,” Craig added.
Kansas Democratic Party chair Jeanna Repass estimated that her party would need an additional $250,000 to $280,000 annually to employ an organizer in each of Kansas’s four congressional districts and reach full staffing levels.
The $10,000 in extra DNC money will allow her to add at least one position to her four-person staff, which does not currently include any organizers.
“That is something that is really, really hard to attain in the current environment,” Repass said.
Major contributors “closed their pocketbooks up” after Democrats failed to break the Republican supermajority in the Kansas state legislature last year, she said.
“People want to give to candidates. They want to give where they think they’re going to have the most immediate impact. And when you’re investing in a state party for long-term, sustainable growth, that doesn’t feel like immediate impact because often it isn’t,” Repass said. “When we’re asking people to invest so I can hire year-round organizers, it may not be the sexiest thing.”
State party leaders in Kansas, South Dakota, South Carolina and Idaho told NOTUS they have seen a surge of energy from voters — or potential candidates — since President Donald Trump has taken office, which has often translated to an increase in small monthly contributions. But financing a year-round, all-regions organizing staff is an uphill battle, and the people whose job it is to talk to voters are the first to get cut after Election Day.
Jay Parmley, the executive director of the South Carolina Democratic Party, said the party “knew it was going to be hard” in 2025 when leadership decided to keep its three organizers on the payroll after the November elections. But there was no other way to keep the party active with events, canvassing, and digital actions when they knew people would protest the Trump administration.
Parmley said many donors are not interested in the long game of building the party.
“If our state parties were better funded, and we were organizing at the local level all the time, it would make winning so much easier in these big races. And they wouldn’t have to come in and feel like they’re bailing it out,” Parmley said.
“I do think the DNC is helping tell that story by this focus on state parties and talking about state parties and investing everywhere,” he added. “I do think bigger national donors will see that and will come to understand that we are a smart investment.”
There are three places where the DNC anticipates state parties will put the money to use, said Jane Kleeb, the president of s DNC’s Association of State Democratic Committees, worked on on data-backed voter engagement programs, paying senior staff competitive wages and paying chairs, who often work long hours as the parties’ primary fundraisers, in addition to managing organizing efforts and communicating with candidates.
Currently, only 12 Democratic state party chairs are paid.
DNC Chair Ken Martin ran for the post this spring on a platform of increasing investments in state and territory parties. He previously chaired Minnesota’s state party and served as president of the Association of State Democratic Committees, an organization within the DNC.
“Ken understood the struggles that state parties have,” Repass said.
Executive directors often find themselves in low-paid or temporarily unpaid roles, as well. Craig told NOTUS that she has delayed paying her own salary for a few weeks to cover her team’s pay, negotiated payment extensions for party expenses and downsized the party’s office space.
Schneider said the DNC can provide financial assistance to state parties who express an urgent need.
The DNC’s funding does not match what state parties need, but donors are beginning to understand that the parties have a hand in electing partisan candidates and election administrators, said Martha Laning, the former chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party.
“A lot of people used to say state parties are like a big, black hole. If money is coming in, you don’t really ever know what happens with it,” said Laning, who is also the founder of the State Party Advancement Network, which advises large donors on high-potential Democratic state parties to back.
“We’re getting people from all over the spectrum — people who’ve been in politics for many years who donated at that level, people who are new and just not really involved in politics that much but very, very concerned about what they’re seeing,” she added.
While the DNC’s increased cash infusion isn’t a full fix, state party leaders in Republican-controlled North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Idaho told NOTUS they are planning their spring organizing campaigns from a more comfortable financial position.
“We’re not just relying on the DNC dollars, we’re doing stuff here to up the ante and do better locally,” said Dan Ahlers, executive director of South Dakota Dems. “This additional money from the DNC is motivating people to do just that.”
They said the monthly increases will be used for new staff members, voter engagement infrastructure or office overhead costs.
“That’s what’s great about the DNC funding. It’s very reliable right now. We can pretty much guarantee that in our monthly budget,” said Lucas Fralick, chair of the Wyoming Democratic Party.
Kleeb said she wants to raise the $1-million-a-month commitment even higher.
“I’m hoping that that actually continues to grow. I want to see that being doubled because I know that state parties utilize the resources best, and we don’t have to then rely on upstart, fly-by-night, independent expenditures or new PACs that get created, where a majority of the money goes to consultants rather than actual voter contact,” Kleeb said.