The Democratic National Committee finally cracked open its vault Thursday, releasing a report it had buried for months — a post-election examination of how President Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris in 2024 and won back the White House.
DNC Chair Ken Martin had promised the autopsy when he took over leadership of the party in early 2025.
He made the autopsy a centerpiece of his run for DNC chair, then hired a close ally to write it — Paul Rivera, a veteran Democratic strategist who had not worked on a presidential campaign in more than two decades.
The 192-page document, written by Rivera, a Democratic consultant unaffiliated with both the Biden and Harris campaigns, is missing key sections, including a conclusion, an executive summary, and even “Notes for the reader.”
The DNC’s own legal team slapped a disclaimer on the document before it went public, stating the report “reflects the views of the author, not the DNC,” and that the committee “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 did not mince words about the document’s shortcomings.
“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,” Martin said.
The autopsy process was disorganized throughout, according to people familiar with it.
Rivera, who was working on the report part-time, moved slowly and did not start contacting top campaign officials until the fall of 2025, nearly a year after the election, according to NBC News..
Rivera wound up not interviewing Biden, Harris, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, or many of their top aides. The list of supposed interviewees was never delivered to the DNC despite repeated requests.
Martin initially chose to shelve the report entirely. He had been pummeled in public for months after promising to release it, then reversing course in December.
The about-face triggered a wave of backlash inside Democratic circles and ultimately forced his hand.
Martin issued a statement apologizing for how he handled the autopsy.
“When I was elected DNC chair, I commissioned an after action review of the 2024 election that I wanted to be honest and transparent, and with actionable and specific takeaways for the future of the Democratic Party,” Martin said.
“In December, I announced we would shelve this report, and I meant what I said at the time — that I didn’t think dwelling on 2024 or looking backwards so late in the game helped us to win elections,” he continued. “In short, I didn’t want to create a distraction. Ironically, in doing so, I ended up creating an even bigger distraction.”
Among the findings that did make it into the report: Democratic messaging “created tensions with key constituencies” on the economy, voter outreach arrived too late, and alignment between the party’s main super PAC and then-Vice President Harris’ campaign was severely lacking.
The report acknowledged Republican dominance in modern campaign strategy, concluding that Democrats failed to set up Harris for success and ineffectively attacked Trump during the campaign, and urging the party to move away from identity politics and spend resources earlier in election cycles to connect with voters.
Notably absent from the document’s pages: any discussion of former President Biden’s mental decline, the war in Gaza, or the party’s fracture over U.S. policy toward Israel — fault lines that openly divided Democrats heading into November 2024.
Rivera had 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. But the final report makes no mention of “Israel” or “Gaza.”
Activist group Roots Action co-founder Jeff Cohen did not hold back. “This alleged autopsy is almost worthless. There’s no mention of the Biden/Harris administration’s Israel policy that abetted the Gaza massacre. That cost votes, and helped Trump win,” Cohen said.
A Democrat familiar with the situation inside 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.”
The Republican National Committee reported having $124 million cash on hand with zero debt this week. The DNC, by contrast, reported negative $3 million after accounting for $17 million in debt.
Hours after the report’s release, Martin told DNC members on a call that Rivera “is no longer with or advises the DNC in any capacity.” Rivera declined multiple requests for comment.
