The DNC has a debt problem. How Democrats burned through $200 million

Aug. 13, 2026, 5:12 a.m. ET

The Democratic Party has burned through more than $207 million since the start of 2025 – keeping people on staff during non-presidential election years, sending money to state parties to organize campaigns, and paying off millions in credit card bills.

The spending is so extensive that at the end of June, some four months before the Nov. 3 election that will decide control of Congress, the Democratic National Committee reported having $2.2 million less than it needed to pay off its growing debt.

Chairman Ken Martin wrote in a now-deleted blog post that he raised a lot of money and that the spending is all part of a strategic plan to win smaller local races and build the Democratic Party’s power from the ground up.

Regardless, the spending has some Democrats on edge: The party is in debt at a time when it could use the money to win control of the Senate and the House of Representatives, upending President Donald Trump’s last two years in office.

“I don’t remember any parties being in this degree of financial constraints,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. “It’s a bad look for a major political party to be in financial straits.”

Mia Ehrenberg, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, said her party is “fighting for everyday Americans who are outraged over Republicans’ agenda” and said, “Voters are going to reject Republicans at the ballot box in November and elect Democrats.”

DNC spends on staff, local parties, and credit cards

The DNC has been spending millions more on staff than the Republican National Committee, paying dozens more people each year, according to a USA TODAY analysis of 2025 and 2026 records that both parties submitted to the Federal Election Commission.

In 2025, the DNC spent $15.8 million on payroll to 354 people. The RNC, by comparison, paid $10.9 million to 258 people. In the first five months of 2026, the DNC spent $7.2 million paying 279 people, while the RNC paid $5.2 million to 193 people.

The DNC disputed the analysis of the data it submitted to the FEC and said the party’s staff stays around 200 to 250 people. The number on FEC payroll records can include seasonal staff or people receiving severance, not just year-round staff.

“We are investing in people,” Martin, the party chair, wrote July 20. “The party must recruit, train, retain, and promote talented organizers, campaign managers, communications staff, data professionals, and political leaders.”

He criticized former Democratic Party leadership for hiring staff right before an election and then closing field offices and letting them scatter. “That is not fiscal discipline, it is strategic waste,” he wrote. “And it’s doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results.”

Local parties told USA TODAY they’re also staffing up, thanks to increased funding from the DNC, which transferred out $21 million to state and territorial parties in 2025 and 2026, five times as much as the $4.1 million the RNC transferred to state parties in the same time period.

Meanwhile, the DNC has been making payments on three different credit cards, spending $16.9 million between Jan. 1, 2025, and May 31, 2026. Over the same time period, the RNC made just $4.2 million in credit card payments.

Ehrenberg, the DNC spokesperson, said the party has long used credit cards to pay for ads, travel costs and other time-sensitive expenses. She said the party ends up saving money because of credit card rewards programs.

Rufus Gifford, a longtime Democratic fundraiser, told The Bulwark on July 29, that the real challenge at the DNC is “reckless” spending. He added: “They’re doing an OK job raising money. It’s much more about where they are spending.”

Democrats in Texas, Mississippi are grateful

The substantial amount of money pouring into state parties is no accident. Martin announced in April 2025 that he was increasing the amount the Democratic Party sent local parties by $5,000 per month to create “the committee’s largest investment into Democratic state parties in history.”

Officials in Texas and Mississippi who receive money from the national party told USA TODAY that they’re grateful for the money, and the influx of cash is allowing them to have a presence in rural, deep-red areas where races don’t make national headlines.

Kendall Scudder, the chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, said that at first his party used the money to stabilize its data management, and then the increased money, totaling about $60,000 a year, to stabilize its staffing.

“I don’t think you can lock a bunch of consultants in a room in D.C. or Austin and buy your way out of the problem that we’re in here,” Scudder said. “The problem is the Democratic apparatus as it existed just existed with that mentality.”

Mikel Bolden, the chair of the Mississippi Democratic Party, said her party used the money to increase the number of full-time and part-time staff and paid interns. She said those are new job opportunities for Mississippians that connect the party with a younger generation and help them win races.

Ahead of a 2025 special election, Mississippi received $100,000, and Democrats won enough seats in the state senate to break a Republican supermajority. That makes it a little harder for the deep-red state legislature to pass laws and override potential vetoes.

“Just as much as we are raising, we are also spending,” Bolden said. “We know that Republicans are out there, and they definitely have the funds, and we’re trying to match that.”

The DNC’s debt is piling up

The DNC’s spending issues came to a head in October 2025, when the DNC took out a $15 million loan, secured against its stake in the party’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.

The party wrote in loan documents the cash would go to working capital, or the money left over after paying the most immediate expenses. The DNC has been making monthly interest payments of more than $71,000.

Ehrenberg said this was not a loan for day-to-day expenses. She said the party is raising more than enough to cover basic expenses and used the money to win races across the country. In October 2025, the month it took out the loan, the DNC distributed $3.4 million in donations to state parties, including in Mississippi.

The overall debt the DNC has been carrying has been trending upward. After taking out the loan, the DNC reported $15.1 million in debt. That number increased in five out of eight months, and at the end of June, the DNC owed $18.5 million. The RNC, meanwhile, reported holding onto $128.5 million in cash and carrying no debt.

“Debt will limit the flexibility the party has going into a competitive cycle,” said Rottinghaus, from the University of Houston. “Money that’s going into old bills is money that can’t be converted into funds for an unexpectedly competitive House or Senate race.”

Michael Kang, a professor at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, said it’s common for wealthy candidates to loan their campaigns money and run their campaigns through debt, but it’s not very common at the party level.

In July, the District of Columbia rejected a property tax payment to the DNC headquarters for nonsufficient funds in August. Ehrenberg, the party spokesperson, said this was due to an error involving anti-fraud protocols. The party quickly made a payment of just under $167,000 upon being alerted to the issue this month.

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