D.C. Memo: Ken Martin takes a victory lap

WASHINGTON Democratic leaders are jubilant about the party s sweep in Tuesday s elections and Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin is among those celebrating Democrats are back crowed Martin the former Minnesota DFL Party chairman Since taking the reins of the national Democratic Party in February Martin has suffered brutal criticism from party insiders who accused him of failing to unify the fractured and disillusioned party and prevent infighting Rahm Emanuel who served as chief of staff for former President Barack Obama reported several months ago that Democrats had missed the biggest political opportunity in a decade because Trump provided a target rich context And the DNC has spent six months on a firing squad in the circle and can t even fire a shot out Emmanuel reported Martin however reported Democrats are unified coalescing around a common theme of affordability that emerged from Democrats trio of wins in New York New Jersey and Virginia on Tuesday We gave people something to be for not just against Martin reported In fact New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani a democratic socialist perfected the art of running on the economic system and affordability He promised fare-free buses fully subsidized childcare rent control and other new programs to help the poor and struggling blue collar workers That theme resonated early for Mamdani winning him the Democratic primary and propelling him from a little-known New York assemblyman to city hall Nonetheless Martin disclosed the new Democratic mantra and Democratic victories this week were a company effort We didn t stumble into this we worked for it Martin revealed Besides winning the governorship in New Jersey flipping the Virginia governor s seat and winning two statewide races in Georgia Democrats swept multiple down ballot races They even swamped school board elections from Pennsylvania to Texas Still Republicans shrugged off the results of Tuesday s elections which were seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump There s no surprises House Speaker Mike Johnson disclosed at a Wednesday press conference What happened last night was blue states and blue cities voted blue We all saw that coming And no one should read too much into last night s voting process results He also cast the Democratic Party based on Mamdani s big win as the Marxist Party Meanwhile Vice President JD Vance advised Republicans against taking the results too seriously writing Wednesday on X that I think it s idiotic to overreact to a couple of elections in blue states That s bullshit we won all over the country Martin revealed Martin was right Democrats had big wins in Georgia and Virginia former red states that are now purplish and victories in the former blue state of Pennsylvania which is now a key swing state and the truly red states of Mississippi and South Carolina Yet demographics may be more pivotal than geography when it comes to this week s Democratic victories Democrats won back their backing of Black and Latino voters which had eroded and helped Trump win the presidency Independent voters who favored Trump last year also reversed program Independent voters are swinging our way heavily Martin announced Meanwhile overwhelming backing for Proposition in California which allows rare mid-decade redistricting in the state to counter efforts by the GOP to redraw other political maps was also seen as a repudiation of Trump Shifting the blame for Tuesday s electoral contest results Trump threw congressional Republicans under the bus Citing unnamed pollsters Trump posted on Truth Social late Tuesday that TRUMP WASN T ON THE BALLOT AND SHUTDOWN WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT He continued that theme all week telling Republican senators at a Wednesday breakfast that the GOP was getting killed by the impasse over funding the administration He pressed those senators to eliminate the filibuster rule which requires votes to pass contested bill including a short-term GOP funding bill that would reopen the cabinet Judge orders USDA to provide full food stamp benefits A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to pay full food stamp benefits for the month of November on Friday rejecting the U S Department of Teaching s plan to partially fund the food stamp scheme for million Americans including Minnesotans People have gone without for too long Judge Jack McConnell explained during a hearing in U S District Court in Rhode Island as he issued the order requiring the administration to tap funding sources it noted were out of bounds earlier this week Low-income Americans who receive assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Initiative SNAP did not have November benefits loaded on their EBT cards on the first of the month which is customary because the U S Department of Agriculture explained it ran out of money McConnell who heard a scenario challenging the USDA from a group of nonprofits and Rhode Island cities and U S District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston who heard a similar occurrence from Minnesota and other states both ordered the USDA last week to release SNAP funds But the USDA commented it only had money in a contingency fund to pay about half the benefits That decision caused confusion in every state and resulted in a lengthy delay of even partial SNAP payouts because the USDA longed every state to recalculate the benefits owed to each beneficiary and reduce benefits for households based on new income limits At Thursday s hearing on the matter McConnell mentioned the USDA cannot now cry that it cannot get timely payments to beneficiaries for weeks or months because states are not prepared to make partial payments USDA arbitrarily and capriciously created this dilemma In a court filing the USDA declared it had only about billion in an crisis SNAP fund and could not tap a billion fund created by custom duties on imported food known as Section that is used for child nutrition programs McConnell ordered the administration to tap into those Section funds which President Donald Trump has eyed to compensate U S farmers for tariff-related losses as well as the billion contingency fund to pay for full November benefits It was not without delay clear how the administration will react McConnell noted that Trump in a Truth Social post stated his intent to defy the court order In that post Trump stated SNAP payments will be given only when the cabinet opens In other news Tuesday s elections resulted in several stories including Brian Martucci s piece on the reelection of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and the reelection of more progressive City Council members and how that may continue an acrimonious relationship State establishment reporter Matthew Blake wrote about how new vacancies in the state Legislature won t end in any change in the closely divided Minnesota House and Senate Meanwhile records reporter Shadi Bushra discovered turnout records were broken in the Minneapolis mayoral race We also had a story about how the nation s beer makers have joined the marijuana industry to target competitors who make THC-infused drinks demanding federal regulations that could decimate a lucrative Minnesota industry Not surprisingly Sen Amy Klobuchar a tariff foe could not keep herself from the oral arguments at the U S Supreme Court over President Donald Trump s tariff policies and weighed in on the situation whose decision could spell mishap for the president s key approach Please keep your comments and any questions coming I ll try my best to respond The post D C Memo Ken Martin takes a mastery lap appeared first on MinnPost