DNC Chair Ken Martin hit the road last week for his first official trip as DNC Chair — traveling to blue, purple, and red states across the country to underscore his commitment that Democrats will go everywhere, compete everywhere, and win at every level of the ballot. As a part of his “Organizing Everywhere” Tour, Chair Martin visited Pennsylvania, Texas, Illinois, Missouri, and Wisconsin.

The tour focused on the principles Chair Martin lived by during his tenure as Chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party, where his statewide track record was 25-0: that Democrats will organize year round and meet voters where they’re at — from the cities to the suburbs to the most rural parts of our country, fighting for working families wherever they are.

As Chair Martin met with fired up Democrats and local leaders across the country, he gave four ways that people can take action right now to hold the Trump-Musk administration accountable: 

1. Attend town halls to let your elected officials know how Donald Trump’s reckless agenda has impacted your community and your life.
2. Make calls, knock on doors, and vote in special and off-year elections — like the Wisconsin Supreme Court race and the Pennsylvania House of Representatives tiebreaker race.
3. Run for a position yourself — in the last midterm elections, there were 100,000 open local races that Democrats left uncontested.
4. Join your local Democratic Party — organizing and winning is easier when you can help create Democratic Party infrastructure in your own community. 
   

From Pennsylvania to Wisconsin, take a look at some of the coverage below: 

National:

MSNBC’s Morning Joe: ‘We gotta do a better job’: DNC Chair kicks off tour to ‘reconnect message’ with voters

NBC News: New DNC chair kicks off multistate tour as he takes over the party

[Ben Kamisar, 2/17/25]

Key Point: “‘It’s time for the DNC to get out of D.C. — that means getting out of our comfort zone, having tough but honest conversations with voters, and showing that we’re willing to fight for people. Democrats will win by organizing everywhere, competing across the ballot in every community, and uniting working families from all backgrounds,’ Martin told NBC News in a statement.”

Washington Post: Ken Martin’s first big trip as DNC chair

[Patrick Svitek, Meryl Kornfield and Jacob Bogage, 2/18/25]

Key Point: “Ken Martin is making his first major trip today as the new chair of the Democratic National Committee — and the symbolism couldn’t be clearer.

“Martin is set to visit Pittsburgh to meet with steel workers and canvass in a special election for the state legislature. In doing so, he is poised to start fulfilling a major goal for Democrats after their disappointing losses in the November election: winning back working-class voters who have drifted to President Donald Trump.”

The Hill: New chair kicks off multistate tour in effort to get DNC ‘out of DC’

[Caroline Vakil, 2/17/25]

Key Point: “The new chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is kicking off a multistate tour, traveling across the country to meet with state parties and support local candidates as he looks to get the national party ‘out of D.C.’”

MSNBC via The Weekend on X: DNC Chair @kenmartin73 on rebuilding the Democratic party: “We’re drinking from the fire hose a little bit, as you can imagine, but we’re making a lot of progress on actually putting our senior team together and standing up the post-election review. And of course, standing up our war room, which is really critical at this point right now.”

Watch via 

@TheWeekendMSNBC.

In Pennsylvania: 

Pittsburgh Union Progress: New DNC chair Ken Martin tells Pittsburgh union members, ‘The Democratic Party has got to get back to its roots’

[Steve Mellon, 2/19/25]

Key Point: “Martin’s stop in Pittsburgh marks the beginning of his first major trip as chair of the DNC. His goal, he said, is to get out of Washington and talk to working people.”

WESA: National Democratic chair Ken Martin visits McKeesport, vows ‘We’re willing to fight’

[Chris Potter, 2/19/25]

Key Point: “The Democratic National Committee’s newly elected chairman, Ken Martin, came Tuesday to Western Pennsylvania, where he argued that the path to redemption — and perhaps to the White House — leads through McKeesport. And through places like it. … ‘Our party can’t just be a party focused on seven battleground states and a few Congressional seats,’ Martin said. ‘The way we win back working people is making sure that we’re competing and contesting every single race up and down the ballot.’”

Axios Pittsburgh: New DNC chair starts anti-Trump push in Pittsburgh

[Ryan Deto, 2/18/25]

Key Point: “Martin criticized Musk’s role in the White House, calling him an ‘unelected billionaire’ who has misled priorities, and called out Trump for not focusing on lowering prices of groceries, housing and gas like he promised. ‘We have to stiffen our spines as Democrats. We need to get ourselves in this fight. And realize that the stakes are so high for the American people right now,’ Martin said. ‘The important thing as a national party is to make sure we make sure we leave no county and no ZIP code uncontested,’ he said.”

TribLive: Newly elected Democratic chairman begins national tour in Western Pa.

[Tom Fontaine, 2/18/25]

Key Point: “Martin said the two stops signify what’s most important to him in his new role as national party chairman: winning back working-class voters Democrats lost to Republicans in recent years and hotly contesting every race, no matter how big or small the office might be.”

Washington Examiner: New DNC chairman makes a pitch to working-class Pennsylvanians 

[Salena Zito, 2/19/25]

Key Point: “The Democrats‘ new national party chairman, Ken Martin, came to western Pennsylvania on Tuesday as part of a multistate tour in the Great Lakes Midwest in an effort to send a message to working-class voters that Democrats have lost in recent elections. …

“His message was that the path to a majority in the state House, as well as in Congress and possibly the White House, begins in places like McKeesport.”

Chair Martin on WPXI: 

Key Point: “Look, we’ve got a great candidate here in Dan, who’s running on a local level to make sure we can keep the House majority. And he’s running on an agenda that’s going to lift people up and focus on the economic issues and kitchen table issues that are animating the American people right now.”

In Texas: 

Houston Chronicle: New DNC chair makes early stop in Texas

[Jeremy Wallace, 2/21/25]

Key Point: “A key part of that focus he said is looking hard at the 14 seats in the Texas Legislature that Democrats need to win back to regain control of the Texas House by 2032, when the state next redraws all the U.S. House and State Legislature district boundaries. He said the national party needs to be doing everything it can to help Texas Democrats accomplish that.

“‘Texas is really the future of the Democratic Party,’ the Minnesota Democrat said.”

New York Times: Reeling Texas Democrats Get a Rare Sight: Their National Chair

[J. David Goodman, 2/20/25]

Key Point: “Yet the newly elected chair of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, made Texas one of the first stops this week on his first swing through the country. And the message he carried was the opposite: Texas, the second-largest state, could still be a linchpin for the national party’s revival.

“‘The future of the Democratic Party runs through Texas,’ Mr. Martin said in an interview in Houston, pointing to national shifts in population away from Democratic coastal strongholds and toward the South. ‘We are here right now to start laying down the foundation.’”

ABC 13: This Week in Texas Exclusive: New Democratic National Committee Chair visits Houston

[Tom Abrahams, 2/22/25]

Key Point: “Martin told This Week in Texas it’s important for Democrats to show Americans why they care about the problems of ‘working people’ while, at the same time, attacking the policies of President Donald Trump.”

Chair Martin on ABC 13 Houston: 

Key Point: “Texas really is the future of the Democratic Party, right? This is such a critical battleground state for us as we move forward into the ‘26 elections. Of course, the ‘28 election cycle and beyond, it’s really important that we’re here organizing. I’ve been meeting with local leaders, listening to people throughout the city today, and lots of good conversations. For me right now, it’s really just listening, learning, hearing about people’s experiences, both in this past election, and what we need to do to prepare for the future.”

Texas Democrats on X: Texas Democrats were thrilled to greet new DNC Chair 

@kenmartin73 in Houston yesterday on his first major trip after taking office. Our roundtable conversation left us confident that new DNC strategies will place Texas center-stage.

Jeff Strater on X: DNC Chair Ken Martin, @kenmartin73, brought his Organizing Everywhere tour to Texas today, and this is precisely the leadership we need. Tough conversations, real grassroots organizing, and a commitment to competing everywhere. Glad to have cast my vote for him as DNC Chair. Let’s get to work!

Brad Johnson, The Texan News, on X: New DNC Chair Ken Martin will be coming to Texas as part of his first tour as head of the national party. #txlege

In Illinois: 

Democratic Party of Illinois Chair Lisa Hernandez: Great to have DNC Chair Ken Martin in Illinois today to meet with County leaders and discuss the road ahead.

Illinois Democrats know winning doesn’t just happen. It takes organizing, listening to voters, and showing up everywhere. That’s exactly what we’re going to keep doing.

In Missouri: 

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: New Democratic Party leader stops in St. Louis on national tour

[Ezra Bitterman, 2/21/25] 

Key Point: “Martin now is on a ‘get out of DC’ tour, stopping in red, purple and blue states in the Midwest and South. ‘We have to get the DNC out of DC, for our party at this moment, we have to compete everywhere,’ Martin said, at Friday stop in St. Louis.

“Martin promised to increase funding for red states in his run for party chair. BallotReady, a nonprofit group that gathers election data at all levels, found that 80% of races in Missouri were uncontested in 2024. In his run for party chair, Martin promised to prioritize competing in more races.”

First Alert 4: New DNC Chair visits St. Louis, talks farm funding crisis and future of party

[Avery Martinez, 2/21/25]

Key Point: “Ken Martin, the recently elected chair of the Democratic National Committee, picked St. Louis as one of his stops along his national tour focused on getting the ‘DNC out of D.C.’ He met this morning with farmers and ranchers, as well as rural community experts, from across the Show Me State.”

St. Louis Public Radio: National Democratic party chairman says Missouri Democrats still matter

[Jason Rosenbaum, 2/24/25]

Key Point: “But in an interview on The Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air, Martin said his party needs to stop ignoring red states like Missouri if they’re going to get out of their electoral funk. And he said that Missouri Democrats should expect tangible help from the national party in the coming months.”

Will Westmoreland on Tik Tok: “[Ken Martin] showed up in a red state in red America, to talk to rural people about the issues that concern them, and made a commitment on the record to go back and fight for those issues. And as a rural person, I can’t appreciate that any more. So what am I going to do? I’m going to give him a chance while I continue to prod and poke for the advancements that we need in rural America to make it a better place to live, send our kids to school, and get treatments for the medical conditions that ail us. To Ken Martin and the DNC — thank you.” 

In Wisconsin: 

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: New DNC chair Ken Martin visits Wisconsin, calls Supreme Court, DPI races first big test

[Laura Schulte, 2/23/25]

Key Point: “Ken Martin appeared at a door-knocking event in Glendale, first addressing a group of local Democrats before heading out to knock doors in the neighborhood in support of state Superintendent Jill Underly.”

Chair Martin on WISN 12 News:

Key Point: “We’re here in Wisconsin today to make sure that we’re doing our part to help win these critical races, of course, the Supreme Court race and the Department of Public Instruction race. It’s really critical that we win both of those races.”

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