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Democrats keep winning at the ballot box as the party works to regain a majority in Congress in this year’s midterm elections.
But despite multiple electoral victories and improved performance in the more than 15 months since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, the party’s image in opinion polls remains well-trodden and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is lagging badly behind the rival Republican National Committee in fund-raising, an important indicator of a party’s strength.
To make matters worse, the DNC is facing continued calls to release an internal investigation into the party’s widespread failures in the 2024 election, when Democrats lost the presidency and Senate majority and failed to regain control of the House.
Among those calling on the DNC to make public its report on what went wrong for Democrats in 2024 is former Vice President Kamala Harris, who was the party’s presidential nominee two years ago.
Democratic National Committee flip-flops, puts pause on its 2024 election ‘autopsy’
Former Vice President Kamala Harris speaks with patrons while stopping at Crave restaurant before a South Carolina Democratic Party fundraiser on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, in Greenville, SC. (Meg Kinnard/AP Photo)
Harris, who is considering another bid for the White House in 2028, recently told donors that she believes the DNC should make the autopsies public. The news was first reported by NBC News and confirmed by Fox News Digital.
A source with knowledge said Harris had not discussed the autopsy with DNC Chairman Ken Martin, and the former vice president was not aware in advance of Martin’s decision in December to keep the 2024 election autopsy secret.
Martin ordered the report shortly after being elected DNC chair early last year.
Democratic Party officials interviewed more than 300 Democrats from all 50 states for the report, with Martin promising that he would examine the party’s mistakes in 2024 and offer a roadmap for further victories.
There was controversy surrounding the report when it was compiled, after reports last summer said the autopsy would be left to analyzing whether then-President Joe Biden should have run for re-election in 2024 and to evaluating key decisions made by Harris and her team when she replaced Biden as the party’s nominee with just over three months until the 2024 election.
Throughout the process, Martin repeatedly shied away from calling the report an “autopsy”, as he maintained that the Democratic Party was not dead. Instead he termed the report an “after-action review”.
But in December, just weeks after Democrats won big in the 2025 off-year elections, the party announced it would not release the report.
Martin said in a statement at the time that releasing the report would be a “distraction” from the party’s “core mission” of winning back the congressional majority in the midterms.
Democracy ’26: Stay updated with Fox News Election Hub
Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin addresses party members at the DNC summer meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota on August 25, 2025. (Paul Steinhauser – Fox News)
Explaining his decision, Martin wrote, “We have completed a comprehensive review of what happened in 2024 and are already putting our learnings into motion. And we’re winning again – even in places that haven’t turned blue for decades. In our conversations with stakeholders across the Democratic ecosystem, we agreed on what’s important, and that’s learning from the past and winning the future.”
“Here’s our North Star: Does it help us win? If the answer is no, then it’s a distraction from the main mission,” he stressed.
But the DNC chair’s decision was criticized not only by Republicans but also by fellow Democrats.
Former DNC vice chair David Hogg said in a warning, “They are calling for a post-mortem of the election that gave us Trump 2.0. If party leaders won’t take the necessary steps to rebuild themselves into a winning coalition, we will take matters into our own hands.” social media post In those days.
Hogg, a gun-control warrior who was elected vice chair of the DNC as Martin won election as chair, stepped down from his post last summer after upsetting party leaders over efforts to support primary challenges from what he called “asleep at the wheel” of longtime incumbents in older, safer, blue districts.
Dan Pfeiffer, former senior adviser to then-President Barack Obama and co-host of the popular progressive podcast “Pod Save America,” also attended. social media To criticize this move.
Pfeiffer wrote, “This is a very bad decision that smacks of the caution and complacency that has brought us to this moment.”
His podcast co-host and fellow Obama alumnus Jon Favreau called the DNC flip-flop “surreal” and “baffling.”
“The DNC’s real position is that if the public knew more about what Democrats did wrong in the last election, it would hurt the party’s chances in the next election,” Favreau wrote on “How does it rebuild trust between party insiders and grassroots workers and organizers?”
Martin made an appearance on “Pod Save America” last month to protest the criticism.
DNC Chair Heckled by Liberal Podcast Host for Not Releaseing 2024 Political Autopsy Report
When Martin was asked if the DNC would release a summary of the report, he said, “We are releasing it.” “The reality is we’re not hiding the ball on this. We’re sharing those things. There’s no smoking gun here.”
“We are providing the briefing,” Martin said, pointing to data from the report shared by the DNC with Democratic stakeholders.
Harris is not the only potential contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028 asking the DNC to make the full report public.
“Yes, release the autopsy,” New Jersey Senator Cory Booker said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last weekend Sunday. “They should do that,” the senator said, pointing to the DNC.
But Booker, who unsuccessfully sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination won by Joe Biden and who is considering another run in 2028, said it is important that his party not dwell on the past.
Rotimi Addoe, a former Democratic activist who works as a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, argued in a social media post that “The mistake the DNC made is they could have released the report earlier in the spring, all that’s in it, you get two weeks of bad publicity, then Trump does something stupid and everybody forgets.”
He claimed, “Now it feels like something is being hidden, which makes it more sensual.”
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A person familiar with the DNC’s strategy told Fox News Digital that with all the focus on the autopsy, “they’re going to be forced to release something.”
The person, who requested anonymity to speak more freely, said the ongoing story is a distraction for the DNC as time approaches the midterms, adding, “Talking about it is not helping.”
The DNC pointed to Martin’s past comments when contacted by Fox News Digital.
