Washington — The Democratic National Committee on Thursday released a long-awaited autopsy on the 2024 election that party chair Ken Martin has kept under wraps for months, bowing to pressure to unveil a document that has become a source of consternation for many Democrats.
“How, we all asked, could Democrats have lost to Donald Trump again? How did we blow through billions of dollars? And where do we go from here?” Martin said in a statement announcing the release. “When I commissioned a comprehensive review of the 2024 election, I started a process to answer those questions while interrogating where our party has systemically and historically fallen short.”
But Martin said he is “not proud” of the final product because it “does not meet my standards.” He said he was releasing it because “transparency is paramount.”
The release followed months of pressure from other Democrats. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro told Martin in a phone conversation last week he was not happy that the party hadn’t released the autopsy, according to sources familiar with the call. That comment surprised Martin and may have helped propel Thursday’s release. NBC News was first to report on the call between Martin and Shapiro, who is widely viewed as a potential 2028 presidential contender.
The final document is 192 pages long, and includes this disclaimer on every page: “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.”
There are also editorial notes throughout the document reading “no sourcing provided,” “contradicts public reporting” and “inconsistent with data in chart.” Sources familiar with the report confirmed to CBS News that the author was Democratic strategist Paul Rivera. On a DNC call Thursday, Martin said that Rivera is no longer working for the committee, sources familiar with the call confirmed to CBS News.
“When I received the report late last year, it wasn’t ready for primetime. Not even close. And because no source material was provided, fixing it would have meant starting over, from the beginning — every conversation, every interview, every data set,” Martin said.
The final document says the party conducted hundreds of interviews, but it does not specify who was consulted. There are frequent notes flagging quotes that are missing sources, as well as a number of typos and factual errors. The report, for instance, incorrectly states that on Jan. 6, 2021, a Capitol Police officer “was beaten to death by the insurrectionists.”
President Trump’s defeat of former Vice President Kamala Harris included winning every battleground state that former President Joe Biden won four years earlier. While the DNC report examines an “enthusiasm gap,” the document does not address some key issues facing the country, including Israel and Gaza or Biden’s age.
The report lays partial blame for Harris’ defeat at the feet of the Biden political operation, saying it failed to “effectively support” Harris when she became the nominee in July 2024 for a successful general election run.
The report also says the Democrats “did not effectively drive Trump’s negatives, and the White House did not effectively support Vice President Harris over three and a half years to improve her standing before the candidate switch.”
“The retrospective job approval for Trump was too high and the campaign and allies failed to remind voters of his incompetence,” the report says. “The idea Trump’s negatives were ‘baked in’ is a major failure of analysis and reality — given how his favorability has cratered less than a year into this term.”
The autopsy also analyzed what pollsters said was a “very effective” Trump attack ad leveled at Harris during the campaign, which featured video of Harris voicing support for gender-affirming surgery for transgender inmates. The report said pollsters “felt the campaign was boxed – the ad was a video of her saying what she said, and it was framed as an attack on her economic priorities.” The tag line was “Kamala is for they/them. Trump is for you.” The report concluded, “If the Vice President would not change her position – and she did not – then there was nothing which would have worked as a response.”
Martin ordered an autopsy in January 2025 of what the party did wrong. But in December, Martin said he would not release the report, soon after Democrats had swept major races in the off-year elections. “Here’s our North Star: does this help us win? If the answer is no, it’s a distraction from the core mission,” he said at the time.
In his statement Thursday, the chairman explained his decision to initially withhold the report by saying he did not want to “create a distraction.”
“Ironically, in doing so, I ended up creating an even bigger distraction. And for that, I sincerely apologize,” he said.
Many Democrats had questioned Martin’s decision not to release the autopsy. Rob Flaherty, the deputy campaign director of the Biden and then Harris teams, wrote an essay for The Bulwark last week detailing what he told the team that put together the report.
Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha, a CBS News contributor, said that he had a “long interview” with the DNC for the autopsy.
“I’m glad that it is out and I think we can learn from our mistakes and build on our Senate race success,” Rocha wrote on X. “But there must be accountability for those who continue to fail up in this party!”
Democrats are grappling with intra-party divisions ahead of what many expect could be a “wave year” for them. For example, in Pennsylvania’s 3rd District — the most Democratic-leaning district in the country — progressive candidate Chris Rabb won Tuesday’s primary for retiring Rep. Dwight Evans’ seat, defeating three others, including the former chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.
