After months of speculation and consternation, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) finally released its long-awaited ‘autopsy’ of the 2024 election – pointing to major messaging failures, while dodging some of the campaign’s biggest questions.
The Controversy
As reported on Friday’s AM Update, DNC Chair Ken Martin ordered the review of the last election shortly after taking over the post in February 2025. He promised to make the findings public, but, in December, Martin abruptly reversed course and said he would keep the report private.
That fueled backlash inside the party. By mid-April, more than a dozen DNC members called on him to release it.
The Unusual Rollout
Martin finally caved and provided CNN with an incomplete version of the report, while warning he did not believe the document is “ready for public consumption.” He claimed it “does not meet my standards, and it won’t meet your standards, but I am doing this because people need to be able to trust the Democratic Party and trust our word.” Martin also acknowledged his refusal to make it public had become a distraction.
CNN reviewed the document before publishing it Thursday morning and concluded it contained some factual inaccuracies and was “sometimes hard to follow.”
To further distance himself from the finished product, Martin put a disclaimer at the top of the document stating the findings do not reflect the views of the DNC but rather the report’s author, Democrat consultant Paul Rivera.
“Disclaimer: This document reflects the views of the author, not the DNC. The DNC was not provided with the underlying sourcing, interviews, or supporting data for many of the assertions contained herein and therefore cannot independently verify the claims presented.”
Adding to the unusual rollout, the report included red annotations from DNC officials pushing back on portions of the review. The notes flagged alleged errors and, at times, undercut the findings.
Messaging Problems
The nearly 200-page document faulted the Harris campaign for not doing enough to reminded voters why they disliked President Donald Trump’s first term. According to the autopsy, it was “essential to prosecute a more effective case as to why Trump should have been disqualified from ever again taking office.” The report found the evidence was there, but the messaging never made the case.
Instead, the review concluded the Harris campaign appeared to rely on Trump being unacceptable rather than building an affirmative argument for Vice President Harris herself. The report specifically pointed to Harris’ struggle to define herself beyond being “not Trump” and beyond the campaign’s “prosecutor vs. felon” framing.
It also singled out one of the Trump campaign’s most memorable attack ads, which concluded, “Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you,” in reference to the vice president’s support for taxpayer-funded sex-change operations for inmates.
According to the autopsy, the campaign’s pollsters “all recognized [the ad] as very effective” and it created a political problem Team Harris never figured out how to solve. “If the Vice President would not change her position – and she did not – then there was nothing which would have worked as a response,” it concluded.
Furthermore, the autopsy repeatedly criticized the party’s reliance on “identity politics,” arguing Democrats need to move away from demographic appeals and focus more directly on affordability, cost of living, and middle-class concerns.
The report pointed to candidates like U.S. Senators Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), praising their “year-round presence, economic messaging, and addressing cost-of-living concerns resonate more than identity politics.”
And when it comes to winning back male voters, the message was blunt. It urged Dems to use male messengers and warned them not to assume “identity politics will hold male voters of color.”
What’s Missing
The report also argued the GOP’s 2024 win came down, in part, to learning more from former President Barack Obama’s winning playbook than Democrats did. “The GOP’s campaign was powered by data, amplified by social media, and enabled by ardent supporters at every level,” it read.
Even so, the report avoided some of the largest questions surrounding the Harris campaign. It did not evaluate President Joe Biden’s ill-fated decision to run again, the fallout from the war in Gaza inside the Democratic coalition, or Vice President Harris effectively being anointed as the nominee without anything resembling a competitive replacement process.
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