American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, who publicly supported former Democratic National Committee vice chair David Hogg’s efforts to launch primary challenges against the party’s incumbents, has resigned from the DNC in a rebuke to Chairman Ken Martin.
Weingarten wrote in a letter earlier this month that she feels “out of step” with Martin’s leadership. She declined Martin’s offer to reappoint her to the DNC as an at-large member, a role she has held since 2002.
“I do not want to be the one who keeps questioning why we are not enlarging our tent and actively trying to engage more and more of our communities,” the letter says.
Weingarten’s union has wielded extensive “political power” within Democratic circles over the years, an Institute for Educational Reform spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon in 2023. Under her leadership, the American Federation of Teachers has prioritized progressive activism—including training sessions on “integrating climate change into your teaching” and “affirming LGBTQIA+ identities in and out of the classroom”—even as student test scores fell to historic lows.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Weingarten played a major role in Democrats’ efforts to keep schools closed, calling the push to reopen classrooms “reckless,” “callous,” and “cruel.”
Weingarten’s resignation from the DNC comes after she in April endorsed Hogg’s $20 million pledge to fund primary challenges against “ineffective, asleep-at-the-wheel” Democrats in deep-blue House districts. At the time, Weingarten said the unprecedented pledge was necessary to “ruffle some feathers.” Hogg’s move sparked intraparty backlash, and weeks later, the DNC voted to invalidate his vice chair election on procedural grounds and hold a new vote. Hogg has withdrawn from the race.
Weingarten is not the only union official to quit the DNC. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees president Lee Saunders has also declined renomination as an at-large member, according to the New York Times.
“The departures of Ms. Weingarten and Mr. Saunders,” the Times reported, “represent a significant erosion of trust in the D.N.C.—the official arm of the national party—during a moment in which Democrats are still locked out of power and grappling for a message and messenger to lead the opposition to President Trump.”
Saunders echoed Weingarten’s criticism of Martin’s leadership. “This is not a time to close ranks or turn inward,” Saunders said in a statement to the Times.
Both Weingarten and Saunders had backed Martin’s opponent in the race for DNC chair, Wisconsin Democratic Party head Ben Wikler.