The Democratic National Committee released a much-anticipated autopsy on May 21 explaining the 2024 presidential election loss to Republican Donald Trump that has vexed liberals for much of the last year and a half.
The 192-page draft document outlines existing conventional wisdom about the contest and leaves blank entire sections such as the conclusion. But it does assign some blame, in particular to former President Joe Biden’s political operation in the White House for failing to properly set up former Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s standard bearer.
Biden abruptly exited the race after a troubling debate performance in June 2025, eventually passing the baton to Harris, who was swept by Trump in every battleground state after a 107-day campaign.
The report also dings the Harris campaign for failing to distance the candidate from Biden, in light of his unpopularity at the time.
And it says both Biden’s campaign and Harris’ failed to slow down Trump’s momentum.
“There was a decision in the 2024 Democratic leadership not to engage in negative advertising at the scale required,” the report says. “The supporters of this approach argued Donald Trump’s negatives were known, obvious, and baked in, so it would not be a particularly effective approach to engage in negative messaging when the main priority was to introduce a relatively unknown nominee after the unprecedented candidate switch.”
DNC Chair Ken Martin has been criticized by committee members for refusing to release the postmortem analysis. He stood by that choice for months, saying it would be a distraction head of the midterm elections.
In a May 21 Substack post, however, the embattled chair said withholding the document created “an even bigger distraction” while reiterating it doesn’t meet party standards.
“I am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards, and it won’t meet your standards,” Martin said.
“I don’t endorse what’s in this report, or what’s left out of it. I could not in good faith put the DNC’s stamp of approval on it,” he added. “But transparency is paramount.”
Trump’s anti-trans attacks on Harris ‘very effective,’ report says
The report was prepared by Democratic strategist Paul Rivera, who calls out instances where the Biden administration failed to explore and evaluate ways for Harris to succeed.
When the White House under Biden instructed the DNC to take the country’s pulse before the 2022 midterms, for example, it asked more about how then-first lady Jill Biden could be a benefit. No similar surveys were conducted about supporting Harris, the report mentions.
That made the former vice president vulnerable to conservative attacks particularly on social issues.
Democratic pollsters acknowledged, the autopsy says, that Trump’s anti-trans advertisements attacking Harris’ stance on gender identity issues were “very effective.” It noted that there wasn’t an equivalent to those types of ads on their side.
“The Trump campaign and supportive super PACs went full throttle against Vice President Harris, but there was not sufficient or similar negative firepower directed at Trump by Democrats,” the report says.
Several parts of the analysis also discourage a focus on “abstract issues and identity politics,” saying the best way Democrats can connect with voters are by emphasizing issues such as the economy, disaster relief and housing affordability.
Democrats should engage people earlier and put a greater focus on “Middle America” and the South, arguing voters in those areas have, “come to believe they are not included” in the party’s larger vision.
“Millions of Americans are suffering from poor access to healthcare, manufacturing and job losses, and a failing infrastructure, yet continue to be persuaded to vote against their best interests because they do not see themselves reflected in the America of the Democratic Party,” the report says.
Very little in the report touches on a policy critique. It is instead focused on messaging. There is no mention of Biden or Harris’ positions on Israel and the war in Gaza, which ruptured the political left ahead of the fall campaign against Trump.
Parker Butler, a former DNC official, was among the Gen Z operatives who led Harris’ social media accounts in 2024. He said the examination is particularly wrong about how Democrats should fix their communications strategies, adding that “legacy Democratic operatives” have failed to reflect on how the party communicates in a modern attention economy.
“Instead of an obsessive focus on paid advertising, we need to think about how to aggressively combat MAGA’s propaganda machine on social media,” Butler said in a statement to USA TODAY.
The report says voters have lost faith in Democratic contenders “in the face of misinformation and disinformation” because they have, “proven incapable of projecting strength, unity, and leadership, and voters have drifted away.”
Current DNC chair ‘not up for the job,’ former Obama aide says
Starting last year Democrats have been doing better than expected in elections across the country, which has eclipsed many ongoing internal debates and disputes about the party’s current leadership.
Martin, the DNC chair, faced intense questions during an April 28 episode of “Pod Save America,” a popular liberal-leaning podcast hosted by former White House aides to President Barack Obama. He was pressed about why he backpedalled on a promise to release the autopsy.
Besides the autopsy, Martin, who was elected chair in February 2025, has been scrutinized for the party’s financial woes as of late. The committee has about $14 million in cash on hand but carries a massive $18 million debt overall, according to the Federal Election Commission.
The Republican National Committee, in contrast, has no debts and has roughly $124 million in the bank.
Martin’s standing wasn’t helped by the fact the autopsy’s author, Rivera, was a longtime ally, which already has some top Democratic figures calling for the chair to step down.
Dan Pfeiffer, a former White House senior adviser during the Obama administration, said in a series May 21 posts on X that Martin “mismanaged the entire process” by choosing an unqualified person to run the autopsy. He said the fallout is disaster of the chair’s own making ahead of the 2026 congressional races, and that he is not the right person to lead the party into the fall.
“This is the final straw,” Pfeiffer said in an online column on May 21. “Ken Martin is not up to the job, and his continued presence is going to make the DNC woefully ineffective heading into the midterms and then the critical 2028 primaries, where the DNC plays a major role.”
Others in the Democratic orbit contend the analysis shouldn’t obscure the goal of winning back majorities in Congress.
Tory Gavito, co-founder and president of Way to Win, a network of Democratic donors, said the autopsy is one perspective but that committee members already knew what is needed. She said the party must meet voters where they are and rebuild trust with them on the economy and other important issues.
“The biggest threat to American democracy isn’t an unedited 192-page report – it’s the grifters in the White House dismantling our economy, our constitution, and the institutions Americans depend on,” Gavito said in a statement to USA TODAY. “The 2026 election is existential, and any conversation about the future of our party has to start there.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden team failed Kamala Harris in 2024, Democratic autopsy says
Reporting by Phillip M. Bailey, USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
