DNC releases incomplete 2024 election autopsy report with chair expressing concerns
DNC Chair Ken Martin released an incomplete autopsy report on the party's 2024 election loss, then publicly criticized it as inadequate.
Objective Facts
The Democratic National Committee released an incomplete autopsy of its 2024 election loss on Thursday, only for party Chair Ken Martin to eviscerate the report as an inadequate work product. The report, released with annotations highlighting perceived shortcomings, has sections left entirely blank, including the executive summary and conclusion. Martin said 'I am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards, and it won't meet your standards' and 'I don't endorse what's in this report, or what's left out of it. I could not in good faith put the DNC's stamp of approval on it.' Martin explained he shelved the report because no source material was provided, meaning fixing it would have meant starting over from the beginning with every conversation, interview, and data set. Martin's handling of the autopsy has led to a crisis of confidence in his leadership among many top Democrats.
Left-Leaning Perspective
Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin faced a surge of anger and calls to resign from congressional Democrats following the report release, with the chaotic handling building on existing concerns about Martin's leadership and the DNC's anemic fundraising compared to its GOP counterpart. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) told Axios 'He should resign,' citing 'his lack of leadership,' while Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.) told a caller who argued Martin should be replaced: 'I agree. Having what we have right now is not doing it.' Democratic strategist Steve Schale called the report release 'an unmitigated s---show,' adding 'there's just no confidence in the competence in the DNC.' Former DNC Vice Chair David Hogg suggested the chair should step down, calling the autopsy and the debate over releasing it 'a demoralizing joke' and asserting that 'Chair Ken Martin has lost the confidence of his staff, supporters, and most importantly, millions of Americans.' Dan Pfeiffer, a former adviser to Barack Obama, said the DNC autopsy debacle was a disaster of Martin's own making and 'It's sufficient evidence that he is not the right person to lead the DNC at this time.' Adrienne Elrod, a senior adviser for the Harris campaign who was never interviewed for the report, criticized Martin for not fixing the flawed work, saying 'He could have said, this is not up to my standards, this is not something I can release, and then do an aggressive effort to give people something to work with.' Democratic Party officials like Devin Remiker, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, acknowledged Martin's criticism of a report that's 'incomplete and riddled with mistakes,' but said the entire situation was 'disappointing on several fronts' and that Democrats 'missed their opportunity to do the full review of 2024 that so many wanted.' Remiker added that 'One of the reasons the Democratic Party's brand is in the absolute toilet right now is that even Democrats don't believe in the Democratic Party writ large.' The left's focus remains on Martin's management failure and his loss of credibility rather than defending the report's contents.
Right-Leaning Perspective
Conservative pundit Michael Steele, a former Republican National Committee chair, slammed the DNC's decision to release the flawed autopsy, telling MS NOW: 'I don't understand why y'all can't get out of your own way. This is a report that should have been released at the time. Because what I've just heard from you, nothing in that report that's changed from the day it was first released to today. So if you've changed nothing, if you've not cleaned it up, if you've not made it better, if you've not answered the constituent questions within the DNC, why are you doing this today?' Townhall, a conservative outlet, reported that 'the real answer of why the DNC autopsy was never released is that the people brought on to do it were incompetent, and then we were all gaslit about it for months.' Townhall also noted that there is 'not ONE mention of Joe Biden's advanced age or the strategic decision to shield him from a public that thought he was too old to continue as president.' The outlet concluded that 'Incompetence is the standard at the DNC, it seems.' Townhall editorial commentary asserted that 'Americans need to know that the DNC is unfit to govern. They cannot produce an accurate report on the 2024 election almost two years after the fact; they are not honest about why they lost; and yet they still want us to put them in charge of everything.' The right emphasizes institutional incompetence and uses the incomplete report as evidence of broader Democratic dysfunction.
Deep Dive
The DNC autopsy saga reveals a fundamental problem: the report was originally slated for spring 2025, then Ken Martin promised its release at summer 2025, then October, then after the November elections, and finally announced he wouldn't release it at all without explanation beyond saying he didn't want to look backward. The autopsy process itself was disorganized, with Rivera working part-time and not starting to contact top campaign officials until fall 2025, nearly a year after the election. This process collapse matters because it undercuts whatever value the report might have had: operatives working to win 2026 races for Democrats said they months ago gave up on anything useful being produced, with one person saying 'This was a bad idea in the first place.' Both left and right correctly identify the core dilemma: Martin faced an impossible choice between releasing an incomplete, error-filled document or continuing to withhold it and facing accusations of cover-up. After last November's massive Democratic wins, Martin didn't want to create a distraction, but by not putting the report out, he ended up creating an even bigger distraction. The left's frustration centers on Martin's poor judgment in hiring and management—he should have either fixed the report or publicly explained why he wouldn't until it met standards. The right sees this as emblematic of deeper Democratic incompetence. What both perspectives miss is that the real failure occurred earlier: the decision to conduct a part-time autopsy with a consultant who hadn't worked on a presidential campaign since 2004, combined with months of unexplained delays. Meanwhile, Martin has also struggled to put the DNC on good financial footing, with the Republican National Committee reporting $124 million cash on hand with zero debt while the DNC reported negative $3 million after accounting for $17 million in debt. The autopsy controversy has overshadowed these financial problems and contributed to broader questions about Martin's capacity to lead during the critical 2026 midterms.