All eyes are on Michigan for a must-win senate race for Democrats
With the slimmest of margins, progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed squeaks out a primary win for Democrats in Michigan’s senate race.
The Democratic Party owes the District of Columbia over $300,000 in property taxes, interest and penalties on its flagship headquarters in Washington, USA TODAY has learned.
The debt has been building up for several months, according to copies of tax bills on the property, and now includes tens of thousands of dollars in penalties and interest, public records show.
A Democratic National Committee spokesperson told USA TODAY the problem was the result of a mistake, rather than financial difficulties, but the news comes amid ongoing turmoil over fundraising at the Democratic National Committee.
Voters head to the polls in less than 90 days to decide whether Democrats or Republicans should control Congress. With President Donald Trump’s approval rating low, Democrats are poised to pick up seats in the House of Representatives and have a shot at winning the Senate.
However, the latest numbers show the Democratic Party with a fraction of the cash the Republican Party has, and Trump-backed candidates could stand to benefit from an additional $400 million that Trump has set aside in his own account but not yet spent.
The Democrats’ headquarters building, valued at $12.1 million, is the home of the national party as well as the fundraising arms for Senate and House of Representatives races. It is located a couple of blocks from the U.S. Capitol building.
The building was already the subject to controversy after the DNC took out a $15 million loan in October and put “current and future assets” up as collateral.
The Democrats’ property tax bills
The problems with the Democrats’ property taxes stretch back months, according to records available through the District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue.
A Feb. 17 property tax bill with the District of Columbia said the headquarters property account owed $147,000, including about $23,000 in penalties. That bill said the balance was due by March 31.
The bill also said the amount due would balloon to just under $166,700 if not paid until July 1. Additional records show that someone made an online property tax payment of just under $166,700 on July 23, but the payment was “reversed.” Now, an Aug. 4 bill lists a penalty fee for nonsufficient funds.
Mia Ehrenberg, a spokesperson for the DNC, said the issue was procedural and not an indication that the Democrats can’t pay their bills. She said the party is getting in touch with the District of Columbia to rectify the situation.
“The processing issue resulted from standard fraud prevention practices, and we are promptly addressing it,” Ehrenberg told USA TODAY.
The original bill was for taxes owed for the first half of 2026. The Aug. 4 bill now lists taxes due for the second half of 2026 plus an amount for 2027 taxes for the business improvement district where the property is located.
The new total that the Democrats owe is $291,000 by Aug. 31, according to the bill. That number includes $35,000 in penalties, $9,000 in interest, and a $65 “NSF Penalty,” potentially a reference to the reversed July 23 payment.
The property has also been hit with a separate, additional Aug. 4 bill for “public space rental.” The document details nearly $22,000 in money owed, including $12,000 in prior years’ liabilities.
Together, the amount the Democrats owed on the tax account of the District of Columbia’s property at noon Aug. 6 was just over $313,000.
The DNC’s financial problems
Despite raising more than $200 million in the past two years, the DNC reported in campaign finance documents that its financial situation was underwater: The DNC had $16.3 million in cash on June 30 compared to $18.5 million in debt.
For the same time period, the Republican National Committee reported $128.5 million in cash on hand and $0 in debt.
Some Democrats have criticized the party’s handling of its finances, prompting Chairman Ken Martin to defend his leadership in a lengthy blog post on July 20, writing, “The current DNC has raised the most money of any DNC without the White House in the 198-year history of the Democratic Party.”
In the post, Martin criticized people who were looking at the amount of cash the DNC has as anything other than a snapshot in time and telling a “deeply misleading story” about the party’s fundraising ability.
“This DNC is raising substantially more, at a faster pace, from a broader donor base than the DNC did in the comparable 2017-2018 period,” he wrote. “The numbers show a party organization with both strong grassroots energy and stronger high-dollar (donor) participation.”
Since taking out a $15 million loan in October, the DNC has listed increasing amounts of debt each month, and most recently listing $18.5 million in debt. That doesn’t include the DC tax debt because the party only became aware of the bill this week, Ehnberg said.