The Democratic National Committee was already in a hole. Democrats worry Ken Martin is digging it deeper.

Martin’s decision to release and then disavow a scattershot autopsy on the Democrats’ 2024 losses has ratcheted up calls on the embattled Minnesotan to step aside and rattled donors already hesitant to cut checks to a party in deep debt.

It was an unavoidable subtext as Martin called donors Friday to refocus the party on the midterms, according to a Democratic donor adviser granted anonymity to discuss the situation.

Longtime party activists are beginning to reach out to donors and elected officials to put pressure on Martin to step down and are brainstorming potential replacements, per two people involved in the conversations who were also granted anonymity. Other Democrats are starting to wishcast successors, including former Montana Sen. Jon Tester, who dismissed the notion in a colorful response to POLITICO, as well as former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, former Rep. Joe Kennedy III and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Whitmer and Kennedy are not interested, per aides to both, while McAuliffe and Landrieu did not respond to requests for comment.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which backed one of Martin’s opponents to lead the DNC last year, is pressuring state party chairs to dump him, prompting ire from one of his top allies. But some state leaders are publicly closing ranks behind him. And the bar is high for removing Martin, both logistically and because of his deep relationships within the committee that he’s cultivated through his years leading the Association of State Democratic Chairs and his program boosting funding for state parties. It’s also unclear anyone would want the job.

Still, frustration is building among DNC members. It’s directed both at Martin and at the broader Democratic ecosystem they say is descending into a circular firing squad when the party needs to be casting Republicans as the ones in disarray. Martin’s handling of the autopsy threatens to further diminish the power of an already-struggling party apparatus that’s saddled with debt and consistently trailing its GOP counterpart in fundraising. And it’s raising questions about his ability to lead the party through the midterms and into a crucial presidential contest, with some longtime Democratic operatives fretting that the beleaguered party chair won’t be able to convince donors to keep cutting checks.

“It has undermined whatever credibility the DNC had left,” said one former high-ranking DNC official, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “If you can’t raise the money — and the DNC doesn’t have any money right now — how are you going to fund those state party organizations that are the backbone of voter turnout, which is what this is all about?”

Martin pledged to plow ahead in separate calls with DNC staff and members on Thursday and has asked for their continued support. He was in Mississippi on Friday headlining a fundraiser for the state party.

“This was a major mistake. I own it,” he said, per a recording of the DNC member call obtained by POLITICO. “Now it’s time for us to move forward at the DNC, and I hope that you’ll move forward with me.”

Some donors are publicly sticking by him. Ursula Terrasi, a donor from Kansas City, Missouri, pointed to wins Democrats have racked up during his tenure, including in New Jersey and Virginia’s gubernatorial races last year. She called Martin a “great chair” in an interview Friday and said it would be detrimental to shake things up at such a critical juncture.

“So many of us feel that he’s the right person at this time. He’s got a lot of experience in the states, and that’s where we need to win,” Terrasi said, adding, “This Monday morning quarterbacking isn’t helping those of us on the ground working daily to help us win at this critical moment.”

Ousting Martin would be an arduous task. He has amassed powerful allies, including Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb, the ASDC president, and New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley. Both of their state parties have issued statements supporting Martin. Several DNC members said they do not believe there is enough support for a no-confidence vote and that any real effort to remove Martin would have to come through political pressure from House and Senate Democratic leaders. Even if someone else did want the post, the historically risk-averse party would likely be loath to set in motion a major shakeup before a critical midterm.

“He will not be removed,” said Robert Zimmerman, a longtime DNC member from New York who supported then-Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler for chair last year but is now behind Martin. “It’s really a topic for political pundits who don’t have a life and the media who don’t have a story. We literally have six months to save our democracy. The energy and the focus needs to be on that mission.”

Still, Democrats outside the DNC are trying to take matters into their own hands, with several groups pushing their own 2024 post-mortems — including a new one this week — they say offer more comprehensive assessments of the party’s failures and how to move ahead.

And Democrats are still fretting that Martin’s missteps could add to the party’s financial pain.

The DNC already takes a backseat to the party’s House and Senate campaign arms in non-presidential years. Other committees have stepped up to fill the void that traces back at least to when President Barack Obama spun off Organizing for Action and caused a rift that damaged the DNC.

The DNC has somewhat improved its fundraising from small-dollar donors while large donors have been more likely to sit on the sidelines, hurting the party’s cash flow. Raising money from large donors is often harder for the party out of power in Washington. But the decline has been particularly sharp for the DNC compared to other Democratic Party groups, including the party’s House and Senate campaign arms.

Compared to the 2022 election cycle, the number of megadonors, loosely defined as donors giving more than $100,000, has sharply plummeted for the DNC, with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee seeing only small drops. But the data suggest that large Democratic donors aren’t giving up on party institutions entirely — more than 120 donors have given at least $100,000 to either the DCCC or DSCC — compared to roughly 40 for the DNC.

Martin is still bringing in cash. Ahead of the autopsy’s release, he hauled in roughly $100,000 at a fundraiser outside Boston while the DNC was scouting the city for its 2028 convention this past week, according to a person familiar with the event.

Still, Tory Gavito, the president of the liberal donor network Way to Win, who backed Wikler for chair, said Martin’s handling of the autopsy “feels like a real breach of trust.”

“This is a precarious moment,” Gavito said. “And if it were my charge to make sure that the DNC had as full of coffers as possible in this moment, I think it’d be very hard.”