Democrats finally release 2024 election autopsy after criticism

The Democratic National Committee released what it said was its full, unredacted autopsy of the 2024 presidential election on Thursday after months of mounting pressure on party chair Ken Martin, who was keeping the report secret.

Why it matters: Martin’s handling of the autopsy has led to a crisis of confidence in his leadership among many top Democrats.

• Martin previously indicated he wasn’t releasing the analysis of the party’s 2024 losses to focus on the 2026 midterms and build unity within the party.
• Democrats are still debating and arguing over what went wrong in 2024 as they try to find a way forward and retake the White House in 2028.
• Many point to former President Biden’s decision to run for reelection at age 81, his disastrous performance in his debate with Donald Trump, and Kamala Harris being quickly anointed the nominee when Biden dropped out.
• The report doesn’t significantly delve into those issues.

Driving the news: Martin released the report, first obtained by CNN, but simultaneously issued a statement distancing himself from it and its conclusions.

• “I am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards and it won’t meet your standards,” he wrote in a Substack post.
• When he saw the report last fall, he concluded that “it wasn’t ready for prime time. Not even close.” The report contains errors and lacks a concluding section of what went wrong.

The report has an unusual disclaimer, saying it “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.”

• Martin said he initially withheld the report because he “didn’t want to create a distraction. Ironically, in doing so, I ended up creating an even bigger distraction. And for that, I sincerely apologize.”

Between the lines: Even Martin’s allies have quietly called his handling of the autopsy a self-inflicted debacle.

• Martin made the autopsy a centerpiece of his run for DNC chair, and then hired a close ally to write it — Paul Rivera, a veteran Democratic strategist who hadn’t worked on a presidential campaign in more than two decades.
• A Democrat familiar with the situation at the DNC told Axios: “This is still Ken’s problem and the people who are to blame the most are the DNC members still enabling him.”

Martin also has struggled to put the DNC on good financial footing.

• This week, the Republican National Committee reported having $124 million cash on hand with zero debt.
• The DNC reported late last night that it has negative $3 million after accounting for $17 million in debt.

Zoom out: The autopsy process was disorganized throughout, people familiar with it told Axios.

• Rivera, who was working on the report part-time, moved slowly and didn’t start contacting top campaign officials until the fall of 2025, nearly a year after the election.
• He wound up not interviewing Biden, Harris, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, or many of their top aides, CNN reported.

Some Democrats argued that Rivera appeared to tell different interest groups what they wanted to hear or avoided the most sensitive topics in his conclusions.

• Rivera met with the pro-Palestinian group IMEU Policy Project in July 2025, and told them the war in Gaza hurt Democrats in the 2024 election, according to two people familiar with the meeting.
• But the final report makes no mention of “Israel” or “Gaza.”
• Rivera didn’t respond to a request for comment.
• IMEU Policy Project executive director Margaret DeReus said in a statement: “Ken Martin should release the information that the author of the autopsy told us clearly and unambiguously, which is that DNC officials’ review of their own data found Biden’s support for Israel to be a net-negative for Democrats in 2024.”
• In a staff call today, Martin told DNC officials that Rivera was no longer working with the DNC.

Flashback: Several Democrats advised Martin not to conduct the autopsy — it would only lead to more finger-pointing, they argued — but Martin went ahead given his campaign pledge.

• Then Martin abruptly reversed course late last year and said the report wouldn’t be made public.

المصدر: Axios