The Democratic National Committee on Thursday released a report examining what went wrong for Democrats and then-Vice President Kamala Harris in their 2024 election loss to President Donald Trump.
The report, conducted by Democratic consultant Paul Rivera and heavily disputed by the DNC, has been a flashpoint for months within the party. DNC chair Ken Martin had initially backtracked on plans to release it publicly, saying that it would be a distraction from looking ahead.
Earlier this month, ABC News reported how many Democratic donors were frustrated with Martin’s leadership, including his unwillingness to release the report.
“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,” Martin said in a statement on Thursday. “For that, I sincerely apologize.”
The document claims the campaign for former President Joe Biden failed to set Harris up for success.
A supporter carries a sign before Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to deliver a concession speech for the 2024 presidential election on the campus of Howard University in Washington, Nov. 6, 2024.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
The report states that “the White House did not effectively support [Harris] over three and half years to improve her standing before the candidate switch.”
ABC News has reached out to a spokesperson for Harris for comment on the report. A spokesperson for Biden declined to comment.
The report claims that Democrats did not provide a strong enough message as to why Trump should not have been elected again as president and that the Harris campaign relied too heavily on Trump being “unacceptable,” rather than making the case for why Harris should be elected. It also states that the Harris campaign did not do enough outreach to rural or “irregular” voters, effectively taking them for granted.
The audit also claims that Harris performed worse compared to Biden among young Latino and Black men because Harris took those voters for granted while “the Harris campaign appears to have focused heavily on women.”
Vice President Kamala Harris gestures as she delivers a concession speech for the 2024 presidential election, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, on the campus of Howard University in Washington.
Stephanie Scarbrough/AP
It further claims Democrats have inconsistent messaging on issues and have not planned properly when campaigning, and that has led to a split where ballot measures that deal with Democratic-supported issues (such as abortion access) have passed “in states where Democrats remain locked out of statewide offices. This divergence means the Party and our candidates have lost the confidence and trust of voters.”
Martin said he was releasing the report “as we received it” and that “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.”
On every page of the report, there is a note that reads, “Disclaimer: 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.”
Ken Martin speaks at the 2026 California Democratic Party State Convention in San Francisco, Feb. 21, 2026.
Jeff Chiu/AP
Notably, the report doesn’t discuss what role the Israel-Gaza war may have had on the election, not even mentioning the two countries by name, despite previous claims by outside groups that the autopsy was held up because of what it found over voters souring on Democrats due to Biden’s handling of the war.
The report also claims that attack ads from the Trump campaign that featured Harris’ support for transgender rights were effective during the 2024 campaign, echoing previous reporting that pointed to the ads having a detrimental impact for Harris.
The conclusion section of the report is missing, as the DNC’s annotation says the “section was not provided by the author.” There are also multiple errors, according to the DNC and to ABC News’ review, ranging from misspellings, faulty numbers and examples of supposed campaign missteps that the DNC says are contradicted by public reporting.
The state of the report itself has gotten some backlash from Democrats.
“I think the report is a disaster. The only thing worse than the report explaining that the party is wrong on policy is the appearance of incompetence at evaluating what went wrong in 2024,” a source working in Democratic politics told ABC News.
“This autopsy, and the months-long debate about even releasing the report, is a demoralizing joke,” former DNC vice chair David Hogg, who left the committee last year after publicly clashing with Martin, wrote in a statement where he called for Martin to resign.
CNN was first to report about the report’s release.
