Howard Dean, former Governor of Vermont and 2004 Presidential Candidate, was DNC Chair from 2005 to 2009.
Democrats retook Congress in 2006 after 14 years in the minority.
Democrats retook the White House in 2008 after 8 years out of office.
In 1996, China was caught illegally contributing to Democrats, including future party leaders Nancy Pelosi and the predecessor to Chuck Schumer (who also inexplicably surpassed Dick Durban in 2017), the cycle after Democrats lost 40 year generational control of Congress in 1994.
The pattern is money. Democrats needed money to regain power. Money to stay in power. Money to defeat rivals. Money for starving (mutually supportive) non-profits. Money for crooked polls. Money for crooked news.
Bonus: Dean’s predecessor, Terry McAullife, DNC Chair from 2001 to 2005, and Co-chair of Bill Clinton 1996 and Chair of Hillary Clinton 2008, and who underwrote their house in New York for Hillary’s Senate run, was caught by the Washington Post and FBI taking Chinese money in 2016 for Governor of Virginia.