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MINNEAPOLIS, MN - As Democrats hunger for more forceful pushback against sweeping and controversial moves by President Donald Trump and Republicans, the party's national chair stressed that it's time to "stand up and fight."
And in a fiery speech Monday, Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Ken Martin argued that the president is acting as "a dictator-in-chief" and that Trump's second administration is "facism dressed in a red tie."
"We are the only thing standing in his way," Martin emphasized as he addressed the more than 400 elected party officials from all 50 states and seven territories, as the summer meeting kicked off at a downtown hotel in his hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
"Are you ready to take back our country from the wannabe-king in the White House," he asked the audience, to loud cheers.
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Martin, pointing to the forceful response by Democrats to moves this summer by Trump and Republicans to create more right-leaning U.S. House seats in states across the country through rare mid-decade congressional redistricting ahead of next year's midterm elections, said that he's "sick and tired of this Democratic Party bringing a pencil to a knife fight."
"We cannot be the only party that plays by the rules anymore," he urged.
Democratic Party leaders and officials face a multitude of problems as they try to escape the political wilderness.
The party is trying to escape the political wilderness after last year's elections, when Democrats lost control of the White House and the Senate and fell short in their bid to win back the House majority. And Republicans made gains with voters who make up key parts of the Democratic Party's base.
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But the situation has only worsened for the Democrats in the 10 months since last year's election setbacks.
The Democrats' brand is deeply unpopular, especially with younger voters, as the party's poll numbers continue to drop to all-time lows in national surveys.
The DNC faces a massive fundraising deficit at the hands of the rival Republican National Committee (RNC), fueled in part by major party donors cutting back their contributions as they express their frustrations with the national party committee.
New voter data first reported last week by the New York Times showed Democratic Party registration plunging while GOP sign-ups were on the rise in the 30 states that register voters by party.
"There's no doubt that … we have work to do," Martin acknowledged in a sit-down interview this summer with Fox News Digital.
But seeing a silver lining, he added that "when you hit rock bottom, there's only one direction to go, and that's up, and that's what we're doing."
On Monday, amid talk that Democrats remain divided over a slew of policy and political issues, Martin highlighted that "in this big tent party of ours, we are unified towards one single goal, to stop Donald Trump and put this country back on track."
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Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota took aim at talk of the party's divisions.
Klobuchar rejected the "we suck club" label and said "we’re not getting into it when they try to divide us on every single issue online. Complaining about each other to each other – it isn’t how we win again."
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz took aim at media reports of the party's divisions, saying "it boggles my damn mind that in the midst of a military takeover of our cities and the attempt to go into others, the flaunting of the rule of law, the coolness and the unconstitutional nature of the way they're attacking our neighbors, that the press finds the need to talk about, ‘oh, there's a division in the Democratic Party.’"
"There's a division in my damn house, and we're still married, and things are good," Walz said. "That's life. That's life. We are strong. We are strong because we challenge each other."
Walz, who served as then-Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate on the Democrats national ticket last summer and autumn, slammed Trump as "petty as hell."
And he said Americans wake each morning to "a man child crying about whatever's wrong with him."
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told the audience that he and fellow Democratic state attorneys general who've fought the Trump administration in court have "sued this dude 44 times and we'll sue him 44 more and 44 more after that."
"We have sued Trump for gender-affirming care. We are not going to scapegoat the transgender community." Ellison highlighted.
While the 2024 election has faded in the rearview mirror, Republicans have been relentless in characterizing Democrats as extreme leftists.
Former RNC chair Michael Whatley, who formally stepped down last week as he runs for the Senate, argued in a Fox News Digital interview last week that the Democrats "are moving further and further and farther to the left. They are walking away from Main Street right now. They are beholden to left-wing radical woke policies."
"They haven't learned a single thing from their election losses in 2024," Whatley claimed.
RNC communications director Zach Parkinson, responding to Monday's DNC session, told Fox News that "under Ken Martin’s leadership, Democrats have sunk to their lowest approval rating in 35 years, the DNC is still paying off millions in debt from Kamala Harris’ failed campaign, and Martin himself is actively supporting a communist for mayor of New York City. As Republicans, we think he is doing a fantastic job, and we fully endorse him to stay on as DNC Chair."
The "communist" reference points to Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, the Democrats' nominee in this year's New York City mayoral election.
But despite all the problems and setbacks facing the Democrats, they have enjoyed some victories of late.
Democrats have scored a slew of off-year and special election wins, ahead of next year's midterm elections, when the GOP will be defending its majorities in the House and Senate as the party in power will likely face historical political headwinds.
Democrats have also landed some top recruits - former Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina and former Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, in two of the most crucial 2026 Senate races.
And while the Democratic Party's poll numbers are in the gutter, the approval and favorable ratings for Trump and the GOP are nothing to brag about. Plus, polls indicate that the so-called ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ which is the Trump-inspired massive Republican domestic policy, tax cuts and spending law, remains unpopular with Americans.
"We've already won, this year, 38 special elections…..We're winning all across this country, including in many places that haven't gone blue in generations," Martin touted.
And he said that "not all of these elections make national news, but I know that every race matters. Every inch of ground that we gain matters. Every single inch."
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