First, the Democratic National Committee’s autopsy of the 2024 election was slated to come out last spring. Then, DNC chair Ken Martin promised members at their summer meeting last August in his home state of Minnesota, “Three weeks.” Then October. Then after the November elections.
Then, with Martin offering no explanation other than he suddenly didn’t want to look backward, he announced he wouldn’t be releasing it at all.
Each delay fed a rat’s nest of self-serving conspiracy theories: Martin was trying to protect Kamala Harris as she considers another presidential run, Obama campaign alumni were protecting each other, high-priced consultants were trying to keep millions in fees from being revealed, or the party was trying to hide how voters reacted to the Gaza crisis.
Or one of the most widespread: Maybe the autopsy didn’t even exist at all.
It does. At least, a version does. CNN is publishing it in full, along with never-before-reported details of how what was meant to be a look at what went wrong for the Democratic Party instead turned into a fresh collection of blunders that continues to hang over the party a year and a half after Harris lost and has become a crisis for Martin and the DNC.
