Democratic Party Chair Ken Martin lambasted Republicans over cuts to social services in the Republican mega-bill under consideration by the U.S. Senate and for efforts to tip the scales of elections in North Carolina in an interview with NC Newsline Thursday.
In a conversation at a Raleigh cafe Thursday afternoon, Martin criticized Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) for supporting efforts to cut health care coverage for his constituents and put rural hospitals at risk of closure, and said his seat is a prime target for Democrats in the upcoming Senate races.
“It’s quite despicable what the Republicans are doing right now in Congress,” Martin said. “Why are they throwing people off health care? All to give a tax break to the wealthiest people in our communities, to the billionaires, to the large corporations.”
Per an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, the House version of the bill, passed in May, would cut Medicaid funding by nearly $900 billion and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by $295 billion over the next decade. Martin quoted figures showing that North Carolina stood to lose $39 billion under the bill, with around 600,000 at risk for losing their health coverage.
Thom Tillis up for reelection
Martin said while Tillis has voiced some restraint over cuts in President Donald Trump’s signature bill, which is due for a vote in the Senate in the coming days, he fully expects Tillis and other Republicans to “fall in line and throw hundreds of North Carolinians off of their health insurance.”
In a June survey by Data for Progress, a left-leaning polling firm, a group of 916 North Carolinians voiced support for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, by a margin of 74% to 17% and for Medicaid by 80% to 15%. A narrow majority, 52% of respondents, said they oppose the Republican-led mega-bill. And 54% said Tillis and Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) should vote against it.
Though Tillis has reportedly spoken out against the Medicaid cuts in private with Senate leadership, according to The Hill — referencing the same figures as Martin — he has been a public proponent of Trump’s “big beautiful bill,” calling it “the most ambitious welfare reform in a generation” in a June 11 commentary.
Martin said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) is out of step with his constituents and “continues to make himself vulnerable” in the upcoming 2026 Senate election. (Photo: Senate.gov video stream)“He’s definitely not in line with his constituents, and you know, if you look throughout the country and even here in North Carolina, people support keeping Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security — they don’t want to see those social safety nets destroyed,” Martin said. “And they certainly don’t like the fact that they’re being eliminated all to give tax breaks to those who already have the most in our society.”
Martin said he’s spoken to former Governor Roy Cooper, considered a top prospective challenger to Tillis in the 2026 Senate race, multiple times since becoming chair, and called North Carolina “one of our best pickup opportunities in the Senate” in 2026.
“Senator Tillis continues to support policies that are really out of the mainstream of where most North Carolinians are at,” Martin said. “He continues to make himself vulnerable in a very much swing, purple state.”
Elections in North Carolina
Martin took aim at North Carolina Republicans for their efforts to overturn the 2024 state Supreme Court race, in which Justice Allison Riggs defeated challenger Judge Jefferson Griffin by just 734 votes.
“They tried to disenfranchise 60,000 voters who cast their vote for Justice Riggs,” Martin said. “These are attempts by people to hold on to power that know they’re on the wrong side of the issues and they’re on the wrong side of demographic trends in this state.”
He also condemned efforts by the State Board of Elections, which recently came under the oversight of Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek, to potentially disqualify as many as 200,000 voters in upcoming elections along the same lines as Griffin’s lawsuit. The election board voted Tuesday to request missing information — either a driver’s license number or partial Social Security number — from voters who do not have it on file, which Griffin unsuccessfully argued disqualified their votes.
Martin condemned efforts to throw out more than 65,000 ballots in the 2024 election in a bid to overturn Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs’s election victory. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)“What do they do? They make it harder for people to participate. They make it harder for people to actually have their votes counted and for them actually to be full participants in their democracy,” Martin said.
Despite this, Martin voiced optimism for upcoming races in the state. Though Democrats fell short in the presidential race in North Carolina, they won most of the statewide races on the ballot, including the governor, lieutenant governor, and Supreme Court elections — a fact that Martin touted as a sign of strength for the party going into a highly contested Senate election.
“There’s certainly a good trend line that’s developing here electorally for Democrats, but we don’t take anything for granted,” Martin said. “We know that North Carolina is a swing state and it’s going to require us to make a deep investment of time, energy, and money in this state if we’re going to beat Thom Tillis next year.”
He attributed the party’s success in those races to the changing demographics of the state, whose electorate has become younger and more diverse with each passing year. And he also pointed to Republicans in the state growing out of step with North Carolinians and embracing increasingly extreme right-wing positions.
In addition, Martin praised Governor Josh Stein for rising “above partisanship” and focusing on North Carolinians’ economic issues, running as someone who is “centered on an economic agenda that’s going to help everyone, not just a few people.”
“Whether they lived in rural North Carolina, whether they lived in big cities or the suburbs, everyone had a chance to actually improve their lives, and he presented an agenda that actually appealed not just to Democratic voters but to independent voters, and even some moderate Republicans who supported him,” Martin said.
The party’s future
In seeking a direction for the party, Martin said it’s critical to focus on an economic agenda that “speaks to working class people in this country again” — something he saw from both Stein and, in New York City’s recent mayoral primary, State Rep. Zohran Mamdani, who prevailed in an unexpected rout of former Governor Andrew Cuomo.
“He focused almost exclusively on affordability, right, and on economic issues,” Martin said. “His message was really focused on how to make it easier for people to afford to live in New York City, and he didn’t stray too far from that.”
He also credited Mamdani with listening to a wide range of voters, including seeking out Trump supporters and asking what issues were important to them in the recent presidential election and proceeding to earn their trust with an economic agenda that spoke to them.
“What I think many politicians in the Democratic Party need to learn is not just how you organize in-person, but how you organize online, using the power of social media to really engage people in the conversation and create excitement and energy around your campaign,” Martin said.
He said the party will “work our butts off to help get him elected as the next Mayor of New York City” and dismissed concerns over Mamdani’s identification as a socialist, which Republicans have used as an attack line for the Democratic Party at-large — including Trump, who posted Wednesday that Mamdani is “a 100% Communist Lunatic” and condemned Democrats for supporting him.
“The fact that Donald Trump doesn’t understand the difference between a communist and a socialist should tell you everything you need to know,” Martin said. “As long as I’m the DNC Chair, all are welcome, all are invited in this big tent party of ours. I believe you win through addition, not subtraction.”
Though he and former DNC Vice Chair David Hogg came into conflict over the latter’s pledge to back primary challenges to aging Democratic party leaders — a feud that ultimately saw Hogg ousted from his position in party leadership — Martin clarified in the interview that he views primaries as important for holding officials accountable, but believes party leaders should not “put their thumb on the scale.”
“What that does is it actually pushes people out of the conversation. And I know that from firsthand experience in 2016,” Martin said. “There are a lot of young people who supported Bernie Sanders, as an example, and those young people left the party for good. They never came back because they felt like the party bosses were trying to rig the system and, you know, play favorites.”
Martin praised North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton as “one of the best we have in the whole country,” citing her work in rural communities as crucial for winning the state in the future. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)Martin also offered praised for North Carolina party chair Anderson Clayton, among the youngest party leaders at 27. Martin lauded “the energy that she brings to the job” and her focus on rural areas and small towns in North Carolina as helping to deliver key victories in the 2024 races. Clayton is currently in the midst of a “rural listening tour” across the state, which Martin pointed to as important work.
“She’s one of the best we have in the whole country,” Martin said. “The energy that she brings to the job is what we all should be doing, and I’m really a huge fan of hers.”
Martin said he was not yet looking ahead to 2028 in North Carolina, citing his focus on the Senate race, but said it’s critical for Democrats to “build a foundation here to be successful in the future.”
“North Carolina is going to decide, not just in ’28, but in ’32 and beyond, who the next President is, who controls Congress, who controls a number of different levels of power, including here in North Carolina,” Martin said. “We’re going to be investing heavily in terms of time, energy, and money in ’26, ’28, and beyond.”
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