Red-faced Democrats admit they were scammed out of $29,000 by fraudster posing as DNC chair Ken Martin

The already debt-ridden Democratic National Committee admitted to being scammed out of thousands of dollars over an email alleged to be from chairman Ken Martin.

The shock reveal comes after campaign finance records showed the organization $18.5million in debt and using its headquarters as collateral for a loan. 

The anonymous thief sent an email in February 2025 to a committee staffer - who has since been let go - pretending to be Martin, who had run the DNC for just a few days at that point.

The staffer responded by paying out the request for $29,000 to the scammer. 

'The DNC takes seriously our duty to protect our funds provided to us by millions of patriotic Americans chipping in to fund our mission,' DNC Spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg told The Daily Mail.

'This was a one-off mistake that was promptly caught and addressed, and no similar issues have occurred since.' 

However, despite the DNC reporting the phishing effort minutes later to Wells Fargo, they could only get back $7,000 of what they lost, NOTUS reported. 

Several political committees and candidates from both parties have faced similar scams in recent years. 

In 2020, the Republican National Committee lost $44,000 in a phishing scam.  

Martin has been facing an uphill battle since being elected to head the party's operations after Kamala Harris' defeat, according to reports.

The New York Times has revealed that the financial pressures have allegedly been wearing on Martin.

In an outburst that reportedly took place in early July, Martin reportedly threw a phone onto the desk of a junior aide while reprimanding the staffer, according to multiple people who spoke with the New York Times.

The incident prompted a formal complaint to the DNC's human resources department. Six people with knowledge of the episode, who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss internal party business, described the aftermath.

While none witnessed the exchange firsthand, accounts differed over the force of the throw. Those familiar with the incident said the phone was thrown onto the aide's desk, not directly at the employee. The Daily Mail reached out to the DNC for comment.

Martin, in a defense of DNC fundraising totals this week, said, 'the current DNC has raised the most money of any DNC without the White House in the 198-year history of the Democratic Party.' 

The party's finances are also in such shambles that the group had to put up the Capitol Hill-area headquarters building as collateral for a $15 million line of credit to cover expenses.

A party spokesperson told NOTUS that 'this is not new,' adding 'The loan documents were publicly released in November, and the DNC's building was also used as collateral in our prior lines of credit in 2019, 2018, 2014, and many other years.' 

Despite financial issues, Democrats are beating out Republicans on the generic ballot in the latest Daily Mail/JL Partners poll.

Voters said they'd vote for a Democratic candidate in the upcoming November midterm elections - by over nine points. That's a full point increase from the Daily Mail's June poll. 

According to an exclusive new Daily Mail/JL Partners poll, the cost of living is the most cited driver of Trump's disapproval rating, which stands at 52 percent - up two percent from last month.

Half of voters say Trump is doing a 'bad job' on the economy in general.

Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index, energy costs are up 15.7 percent, while all items are up approximately 3.5 percent over the last 12 months.

Fuel oil has increased 42.9 percent, while the cost of gasoline, across all types, has increased 26.7 percent.

And a mere 11 percent of Americans say they are 'very comfortable financially' and can easily save. The majority say they are 'managing' or 'struggling' with covering basic expenses.

Over half of the respondents, Republicans and Democrats alike, say the economy is 'worsening' under Trump's leadership.