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

The breakfast crowd had thinned by the time Ken Martin, newly elected head of the Democratic National Committee, walked into Kelly O’s diner in the Strip District a few minutes before 9 o’clock Tuesday morning. Two guys sat at the counter, one wearing a hoodie and the other a camouflage baseball cap. Martin greeted them, as well as the wait staff behind the counter, then made his way to the back of the diner.

There, eight people sat at a round table, finishing up plates of bacon and eggs and fruit. These were members of the United Steelworkers union, and they were waiting to speak with Martin. They’re all concerned about President Donald Trump’s flurry of activity the past few weeks, and about billionaire Elon Musk’s ascension to … to what? We don’t even know what to call it these days. He’s got the keys to the Treasury database; he’s reaching for our tax information; he’s firing people by the thousands. All this is happening faster than anyone expected.

Martin is now in a position to put the brakes on some of Trump’s extreme actions. Well, maybe that’s overstating it. He can now at least show people where the brake pedal is located so that we can stomp on it. We at PUP wondered, “What would these working people say to Martin?”

Martin approached the Steelworkers, shook everyone’s hand, and said, “Give me the good, bad or the ugly. Tell me, how are things here in Pittsburgh?”

Those at the table joked about the weather (it was minus 175 degrees outside, or at least felt like it) and mentioned the difficulties and frustrations of fighting for working people in the Trump era. Then Martin acknowledged the Democratic Party’s stumbles.

“Too many people right now feel like our party has forgotten them, that they have been left behind,” he said. “They’re working their asses off, and they can’t get ahead, and that’s what we have to really recognize. My brother who’s a union carpenter, he voted for Democrats his whole life. And then in ’16, and ’20 and ’24, he voted for Trump. My father-in-law, who’s a beef cattle farmer in southern Minnesota — same deal.

“We’re losing working people in a way that” — then, Martin paused — “it’s really quite frustrating to me, because, at the core, the Democratic Party has always stood with working people. We have stood behind the American dream, that if you work hard and you play by the rules you should be able to climb the economic ladder.”

Martin noted a recent poll that said, for the first time in history, public perceptions of the two major political parties have shifted. People believe the Republican Party best represents the interests of working-class people and the poor, he said. The Democrats now are considered the party of the wealthy and elite.

“The Democratic Party has got to get back to its roots,” Martin said, “focusing on the working class, focusing on working people and on an economic agenda that gives people a sense that we haven’t forgotten about them.”

He then pulled up a chair and said he wanted to hear from the workers. He asked, “What do we need to do as a party?”

Denise Edwards quickly piped in. She’s international secretary-treasurer for the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR).

“We’re getting a lot of calls from all over the country about was this guy Elon Musk getting into Social Security,” she said. “They’re feeling vulnerable, and they’re just wondering, when is somebody going to stand up?”

Martin responded that the Democrats need to grow a spine and resist the Trump administration’s extreme measures to reshape government and American society. He then launched into a broadside against Musk and his “merry band of teenage DOGE bros” who are rampaging through Americans’ data, including Social Security numbers. He pounded the billionaires flocking to Trump’s side.

“Then Donald Trump was inaugurated in the Capitol; sitting behind him were three of the richest men in the world,” Martin said. “You know how much [Trump’s] cabinet is worth? $460 billion. It’s not the top 1% that bought our government, it’s the top one-hundredth of 1% that now control our federal government. You think they give a shit about working people? You think they care about my family or your family?”

This was getting interesting. Then someone tapped us on the shoulder. It was a member of Martin’s staff informing us that we had to leave the conversation. We’d been told ahead of time that portions of the morning would be “off the record.” So we moved a few tables away while the conversation continued. We watched while workers discussed the issues concerning working people, and organized labor, in the new Trump era. At least we assume this was the case — we were out of earshot. This went on for 40 minutes or so.

It seemed odd to us at PUP that workers who’d been on strike for more than two years were excluded from the entirety of such a conversation — and weren’t allowed even to listen in, to note where concerns aligned with so many others who have walked picket lines with us, who have shared their stories of struggle with us: nurses and hospital workers, university employees, baristas, office cleaners, electrical workers. 

Finally, we voiced our displeasure to staff members (we don’t remember dropping the “f-bomb,” but if so, we apologize). Staff was very apologetic and responsive. We wondered if we’d overreacted. We’re a bit sensitive. We’ve had a front-row seat to the national Democratic Party’s failure to reach out to working people in ways that resonate. We’ve seen it in our own strike, and in stories we’ve covered, like the Biden administration’s anemic response to communities struggling in the aftermath of the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

We were told that our exclusion from the Steelworkers’ conversation was an oversight (advice to aspiring reporters from an overly stressed veteran journalist who should know better: Clarify issues of access before an event, and speak up early and often).

Once the conversation at the back table ended and the USW members were putting on their coats and heading for the door, Martin chatted briefly with a member of his staff, then approached us. Let’s sit down and talk, he said.

***

A bit about Martin: He won election as DNC chair earlier this month after serving 14 years as head of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor party. His track record may give Democrats reason to hope.

The DFL was deeply in debt and stained by a significant losing streak when he took over. Since then, the Minnesota Democrats haven’t lost a single statewide race, the debt is paid off, and, in 2024, the DFL held a multimillion-dollar cash advantage over the state’s GOP.

He comes with union credentials. He came out of a carpenters union (his brother is a union carpenter), his sister is a unionized nurse, and his grandfather was head of a letter carriers union.

“My mom was a single mom,” he said. “I’ll tell you, if it wasn’t for labor lifting me and my family into the middle class, I wouldn’t be here.”

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.

After the morning get-together at Kelly O’s, he traveled to McKeesport to do some door knocking with Dan Goughnour, who’s competing for a state House seat that will be decided in a March 25 special election.

He’ll also visit the blue states of Wisconsin and Illinois and then plunge into red state territory in Texas and Missouri.

***

While sitting with Martin, we remembered one comment he’d made to the USW members sitting in the back — the bit about his brother, who voted for Trump. A lot of us have friends and family members who voted for the GOP.

“I think that’s emblematic of a lot of families,” he said, “where we see people who are frustrated, who are paying more for groceries, can’t afford their life, feeling like they’re being left behind, and that no one gives a damn about their family, right? They see the Democratic Party fighting for everyone else but them.” 

He intends to focus on what he calls “kitchen table” issues, which boils down to economics. If you’ve seen him on cable news interviews, you’ll recognize this part of his message. People who are not billionaires (or millionaires) feel a lot of anxiety these days. They see in the future an economic landscape that will be even more difficult for their children to navigate.

“We have to acknowledge that pain, across all types of people,” he said. “When I talk about the working class, we know that the working class is not code for white people, right? The working class is Black, brown and white people in this country who are working their asses off, who truly feel like they’re failing right now and no one gives a damn.”

That means having “tough conversations” with those who spurred the Democratic Party and not gaslighting people into thinking everything is fine, there are no real problems. Former President Joe Biden’s economic record, by many measures, was a success, but lots of people didn’t make the connection between successful policy and their daily lives. They still felt like they were sinking, and Democrats weren’t speaking to this in a meaningful way.

It’s all the more frustrating because, on many issues, GOP voters align with Democrats. Martin pointed out that Missouri residents voted for paid family leave, an increase in the minimum wage and abortion protections — all by wide margins. Then those same voters cast ballots for Donald Trump. 

So how do you reach Republican voters with a message about kitchen table Democratic values? How do you break that bubble?

“I’m a hunter, and someone asked me once, ‘Well, where do you go to hunt?’ ” Martin said. “And they were thinking I was going to give them my favorite deer stand or, you know, my favorite hunting spot. No, you go where the deer are, right? And for us, in terms of messaging, you need to go where the voters are at.”

He held up his cellphone.

“You know, 90% of Americans have one of these now,” he said. “Meaning that, at the end of the day, they’re in all these online spaces getting information.”

Republicans have been savvy about utilizing social media, podcasts and influencers to push their message, defining Biden and the Democratic Party long before the presidential campaign got underway. Often, this was done by pushing misinformation and lies, and the Democrats offered no pushback. 

“In so many ways, the cake was baked before we ever got to the election,” Martin said. 

Martin talked about breaking down silos that separate different interests in the Democratic party, showing voters that there is strength in working together — union folks are always talking about solidarity for a reason.

“We’re going to put our swords down, right?” he said. “And we’re going to realize that there is great strength in doing this work together through one strategic lens. Once we start to do that, we can start winning again.”