Last week, Kamala Harris was telling donors she wanted the DNC's 2024 election report, probably better referred to as an autopsy, released. Now the report is coming out, and it's bound to be a doozy.
DNC Chair Ken Martin released a statement on the report, admitting it's not up to his standards. And you'll soon see why.
Read more about what I have to say here: https://t.co/9wochQttN5 pic.twitter.com/2REle6FPY3
— Ken Martin (@kenmartin73) May 21, 2026
Here's what the statement says:
When I was elected DNC chair, I commissioned an after-action review of the 2024 election that I wanted to be honest and transparent, and with actionable and specific takeaways for the future of the Democratic Party.
When I received the report late last year, it wasn't ready for primetime — not even close — and because no source material was provided, it would have meant starting over. I could not in good faith put the DNC's stamp of approval on the report that was produced.
After last November's massive Democratic wins, I didn't want to create a distraction, but by not putting the report out, I ended up creating an even bigger distraction. For that, I sincerely apologize.
For full transparency, I am releasing the report as we received it, in its entirety, unedited and unabridged. 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.
There's a lot to parse in this statement. The first takeaway is that the DNC is such a mess that they looked at this report and had no way of actually fixing it. This tells us their party is just as big a disaster as this report. Second, the 'massive Democratic wins' Martin touts have largely been a disaster. Spanberger got smacked down by both the Virginia state Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, Democrats are losing House seats across the country, and approval of Congressional Democrats is at a new all-time low.
Hey Democrats, put down the champagne. Here are your numbers: 70% of voters DISAPPROVE of the way Democrats are handling their job. Only 21% approve. Only 41% of Democrats approve. PITIFUL. All-time LOW.
— Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) June 11, 2025
Ouch.
Parts of the report are being summarized and shared online. The biggest takeaways are not surprises to those who paid attention. It turns out President Trump's 'they/them' messaging was highly effective, Democrats neglected rural voters and local parties, and the Democrats failed to define themselves but relied on 'not Trump' messaging instead.
We're all aware that there was significant tension and backroom fighting between Kamala Harris' campaign staff and the Biden administration. The autopsy shows the Biden team was criticized for not adequately preparing Kamala Harris.
DNC Chair Ken Martin released an incomplete 2024 election autopsy:
— Political Polls (@PpollingNumbers) May 21, 2026
• Trump’s “they/them” attacks on Harris were seen as highly effective
• Biden team criticized for failing to prepare Harris
• Democrats accused of neglecting rural voters and local parties
• Report says party… pic.twitter.com/MXkcPA28ao
There are also no mentions of Israel, Gaza, or Palestine.
Incredible. The DNC autopsy of 2024 is 192 pages.
— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) May 21, 2026
*Zero* mentions of the words "Israel," "Palestine," or "Gaza."
(DNC Chair Ken Martin concedes the autopsy does not meet his standards, nor would it meet yours). https://t.co/t1202zQlCs pic.twitter.com/sNjgotf0lm
This is sure to tick off both sides of the aisle.
What's going on here? In February, Axios reported that top party officials who worked on the autopsy of 2024 concluded that Kamala Harris lost significant support because of the Biden admin's approach to Gaza.
— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) May 21, 2026
But the newly-released autopsy…doesn't even mention Gaza or Israel? https://t.co/mj0A5Zz237
The Left's anti-Israel, antisemitic base will say the Democrats' position on Gaza was problematic, while other voters will see their increasingly antisemitic candidates and office holders as alarming.
🚨 BREAKING: Democrats finally release 2024 election autopsy that criticizes Harris campaign but immediately dismiss its contents as 'not ready for primetime' pic.twitter.com/a0b4GTTsZt
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 21, 2026
Oh they weren't lying this report is a mess https://t.co/47Clb6DAAI pic.twitter.com/HD5oJ391ET
— Organizermemes (@OrganizerMemes) May 21, 2026
It really is a mess. All the highlighted areas and red text are changes that need to be made.
I would posit that the handling of the release about the autopsy says more about the Democrats failures of strategy and messaging than anything you’ll read in the actual autopsy. https://t.co/0eUod5HkEk
— Sarah Longwell (@SarahLongwell25) May 21, 2026
Correct. The Democrats think everything is messaging and strategy, and they're sacrificing policy in favor of messaging.
The report also recommends the Democrats shift away from identity politics in favor of 'middle-class appeal.'
DNC’s 2024 autopsy Takeaways Per CNN
— OSZ (@OpenSourceZone) May 21, 2026
🔵 It casts the Biden operation as having neglected Harris
🔵 It points to a broader failure to define Trump
🔵 It says Harris and her campaign took too much for granted
🔵 It cast Trump’s transgender ad as very damaging to Harris
🔵 It… pic.twitter.com/NS9SNZxEpz
The absolute state of the Democratic Party, ladies and gentlemen.
Here at the DNC we can’t even be relied on to do basic political party organization stuff like cobble together a usable after action report for one of our most humiliating electoral losses in recent history.
— Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) May 21, 2026
Vote for us to run your city, state, and country! https://t.co/HooFT7nMPd
There are also claims that there is still information being kept from the public, too. This includes actual spending and fundraising data, information in internal polling failures, media strategy mistakes, and the collapse of the Democrats' ground game.
BREAKING: After refusing to release the 2024 post mortem report detailing why Democrats lost to Donald Trump - stating that focusing on failure and not the future was unproductive for their party - DNC Chair Ken Martin has released an INCOMPLETE 2024 autopsy report.
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) May 21, 2026
Here are… pic.twitter.com/BmaJNV1wTM
The report also blames the Harris campaign for the Democrats' collapse with men, rural voters, white non-college voters, and new voters. Harris fell below 50 percent with new voters for the first time in modern history.
It was also revealed that Democrats have lost ground at every level of government since Obama's 2008 win.
There are also countless factual errors that were flagged by reviewers, including incorrect dates, inaccurate vote counts, and claims contradicted by public data. The polling is especially revealing. Kamala Harris and the media ran like she was ahead in the polls.
Internal polling never had her ahead, but that wasn't made public until after the election.
Also - DEM's were never ahead in their national polling but kept raising and spending huge money like the public poll aggregate was in sync with their internals. Then when she lost they confessed this. It doesn't get any uglier. Could be why they aren't raising money easily now. https://t.co/2sWidbtIsx pic.twitter.com/jBIvXS6wIf
— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) May 21, 2026
The RNCC has raised a lot of money in 2026, beating out the Democrats in the first quarter. The Democrats did not release April numbers as of yesterday's report. Now we can see why.
While the word 'inflation' is mentioned in the report 18 times, it's all related to 'inflation-adjusted' spending stats. There's no meaningful discussion of the Bidenflation Americans experienced for four years.
Remarkable. Not only does it not mention Palestine, literally no analysis of whether or how it factored into the campaign at all on either side, but it ALSO DOES NOT MENTION OR DISCUSS INFLATION.
— Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban) May 21, 2026
In a 2024 election autopsy. Insane. https://t.co/qSqGbJU6M6
Simply incredible.
Biden's age and cognitive concerns were also omitted.
The DNC Autopsy report runs 192 pages.
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) May 21, 2026
There is not ONE mention of Joe Biden's advanced age or the strategic decision to shield him from a public that thought he was too old to continue as president.
Unreal.
Although, in fairness, the DNC and its media allies did their best to bury that story, too.
So their autopsy revealed that saying they were "not Trump" was a losing message in 2024.
— MizDonna (@MizDonna69) May 21, 2026
That is the message they are still running on.
They learned nothing. https://t.co/jXW2BHEZGc
Exactly this. If you look at Gavin Newsom's campaign, he's trying to run as the not-Trump Democratic version of Trump.
Welp, Occam's razor once again proves true. The real answer of why the DNC autopsy was never released is that the people brought on to do it were incompetent, and then we were all gaslit about it for months. pic.twitter.com/fpNDDNJNyq
— Amanda Litman (@amandalitman) May 21, 2026
Incompetence is the standard at the DNC, it seems. You can read the report here.
The Democrats have learned nothing from 2024. The debacle over this report proves it, as does the report itself. It is a mess, replete with finger-pointing and blame games, full of factual errors, and omitting some of the most important policy positions.
Heading into the midterms, Americans need to know that the DNC is unfit to govern. They cannot produce an accurate report on the 2024 election almost two years after the fact; they are not honest about why they lost; and yet they still want us to put them in charge of everything.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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