DNC releases autopsy of 2024 election wipeout, calls to shift from identity politics
by Susan Ferrechio, Mary McCue Bell · The Washington TimesThe Democratic National Committee released an error-filled autopsy of the party’s disastrous 2024 election performance, succumbing to pressure from party lawmakers and its ex-presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, to make the document public.
The 192-page postmortem starts with a significant disclaimer about the content, but the report’s message to Democrats echoes party moderates: To win again, move away from identity politics and focus on economic issues and the cost of living.
“Winning Anywhere means providing for a renewed focus on the voters of Middle America and the South who have come to believe they are not included in the Democratic vision of a stronger and more dynamic America for everyone,” the author of the report, Democratic strategist Paul Rivera, wrote.
DNC Chairman Ken Martin, in a statement released with the report, said he does not endorse anything in it, but decided to release the document for transparency.
Lawmakers had been clamoring for its release, and Ms. Harris, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, recently indicated she would not oppose making it public.
Many pages of the report are marked with red-ink edits noting inaccurate data, missing source information and unverified claims.
“I am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards, and it won’t meet your standards,” Mr. Martin, who personally hired Mr. Rivera to write the report, said.
The analysis left an executive summary page blank, but further within its pages the report offers a stark warning to Democrats who remain convinced that their message to voters doesn’t need to change to win upcoming elections.
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Critics say Democrats lost in 2024 in part by focusing too heavily on diversity, equity and inclusion rather than kitchen-table issues. The party, for example, defended allowing biological males who identify as females to play in female sports, which alienated some suburban women voters. President Trump campaigned against allowing trans women in bathrooms, locker rooms and on female sports teams.
Some Democratic Party leaders have continued to prioritize DEI, which critics warn will make it hard to reconnect with the party’s once-loyal working-class base.
“To grow, we must admit and accept some hard truths. … 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. In doing so, we have lost the confidence we once received from everyday Americans — and election results show it,” the report said.
The report includes pages of data on the staggering spending in the 2024 campaign. It names the media and consulting groups that raked in much of the $2.86 billion for all federal candidates, with $1.15 billion spent by the failed Harris-Walz presidential campaign.
The autopsy report was kept hidden from the public despite growing calls for its release by House and Senate Democrats.
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Democrats gearing up for the 2026 midterm elections in November say they want to understand what caused the blowout in 2024. The party lost the White House and Congress, leaving it largely on the political sidelines the past 18 months.
Every swing state voted for Mr. Trump in 2024, and he won the popular vote by 1.5%.
Democrats blamed their widespread losses in part on a poorly run Harris-Walz campaign that they believe helped drag down party candidates lower on the ballot.
Ms. Harris is nonetheless weighing another bid for the presidency and is leading in many early Democratic presidential polls.
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She ran a historically short, 107-day presidential campaign, winning the nomination on a DNC video conference call after the party forced an elderly and mentally declining President Joseph R. Biden to drop out of the race.
She ultimately performed worse than Mr. Biden did when he won the presidency in 2020.
Mr. Martin, in a lengthy statement accompanying the postmortem report, offered his own analysis of Democrats and the changes they need to make heading into the midterms, the 2028 presidential election and beyond.
He warned the Democratic brand “is in trouble and needs repair” and said the party cannot win over voters simply by campaigning against the president.
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“We can’t just be anti-Trump, we must have an affirmative agenda to sell the American people. In the wake of the 2024 election, we have seen Democrats run and win on a positive message around affordability, centering on kitchen table issues and the needs of working families. It’s resonating,” Mr. Martin said.
He also called on the party to “speak authentically to voters” on different platforms and to double down on registering Democrats to vote.
He noted that Republicans are playing defense ahead of a possible blue wave in November fueled by voters angry about high inflation and gas prices under the Trump administration.
Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters, in a statement, said the Democrats’ 2024 analysis “confirms … Americans hate them” for supporting biological men playing in women’s sports and “siding with illegal immigrants.”
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Mary McCue Bell
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Susan Ferrechio
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