Democratic ‘autopsy’ of 2024 election says party lost confidence of everyday Americans
Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Ken Martin apologized Thursday for creating what he said was a “distraction” by not releasing a report he possessed about the party’s failure in 2024 that led to Donald Trump’s return to the presidency.
CNN published the 192-page document before Martin announced he would release it. He said it was in his possession since last year, but it “wasn’t ready for prime time — not even close.” But, he said, he was releasing it “as we received it, in its entirety, unedited and unabridged,” he said, “because people need to be able to trust the Democratic Party and trust our word.”
Martin also cautioned that, “It does not meet my standards, and it won’t meet your standards…”
Report says Democrats lost the confidence of ‘everyday Americans’
The report faults Democrats for losing touch with voters following the ascendency of Barack Obama to the White House nearly two decades ago.
“Since the high point of the 2008 Obama landslide, when he received nearly 10 million more votes than John McCain, the Democratic Party has vacillated between stagnation and retrogression,” the report says. “In doing so, we have lost the confidence we once received from everyday Americans – and election results show it.”
“In the sixteen tumultuous years since that historic election,” it says, “Democrats have lost ground at every level of government.”
The report also criticizes the Biden White House for not better positioning Vice President Harris before what the report refers to as the “candidate switch.”
“The national campaign 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 report said.
An annotation in the publicly released version of the report says of this particular analysis: “No evidence provided for these claims.”
Republicans agree with the criticisms of Democrats
The report comes after Trump won a string of electoral victories in Indiana, Louisiana and Kentucky, backing challengers who ousted incumbents who had opposed elements of the president’s agenda. And a top Republican spokesperson said the release of the report was another misstep by people who oppose the president.
“The Democrat Party has completely collapsed after getting humiliated in 2024,” Kiersten Pels, national press secretary for the Republican National Committee, said in a statement to Straight Arrow.
Pels referred to Martin as a “failure” who is now “admitting Democrats turned their own so-called ‘autopsy’ into an embarrassing political circus.”
“Democrats spent months,” she said, “leaking, infighting, blaming each other, and flooding DNC leadership with angry demands for answers after voters overwhelmingly rejected their toxic far-left agenda and weak leadership.” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella said in a statement, “Democrats keep stepping on the same rake and seem genuinely surprised when it smacks them in the face.” He added, “Americans have made it pretty clear they’re tired of radical social experiments and out of touch priorities.”
The report had been the subject of speculation for weeks, particularly after Martin appeared on a left-leaning podcast where hosts repeatedly asked about it. When Straight Arrow reached out to Democratic Party officials at that time, one said it would be unproductive to release such a report as they prepared for the midterms. Another questioned whether it even existed, which CNN also noted had been a theory among some party insiders.
One Democratic operative, when reached for comment Thursday, said only that it will be “interesting” to see which officials are willing to comment on the report.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
