The Democratic National Committee released its long-awaited postmortem of the 2024 presidential election on Thursday, only for DNC Chairman Ken Martin to immediately distance himself from the document's findings and conclusions.

The 192-page report, written by Democratic strategist Paul Rivera, was published online by CNN earlier in the day before the committee formally posted its own version, complete with a disclaimer on every page noting that the document "reflects the views of the author, not the DNC." Annotations throughout the text flag claims the committee says are unsupported or unverified, marked in many cases with the label "no evidence provided."

"I am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards, and it won't meet your standards," Martin wrote in a statement on Substack accompanying the release. "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. But transparency is paramount."

Martin had promised in February 2025, hours after being elected chairman, to release a postelection review. He reversed course in December, saying he did not want to encourage Democrats to engage in finger-pointing ahead of the 2026 midterms. The report, which was missing its executive summary, conclusion, and appendices, comes less than six months before voters return to the polls in November.

What the Report Says

The autopsy concluded that the party has ceded ground to Donald Trump's Republicans through underfunded state parties, weak voter outreach, and what it described as "a persistent inability or unwillingness to listen to all voters." It said Democrats had underperformed in particular with men, non-college voters, irregular voters, and rural voters.

"Harris wrote off rural America, assuming urban/suburban margins would compensate. The math doesn't work," the report stated. "You can't lose rural areas by overwhelming margins and make it up elsewhere when rural voters are a significant share of the electorate. If Democrats are to reclaim leadership in the Heartland or the South, candidates must perform well in rural turf. Show up, listen, and then do it again."

Rivera also faulted the Harris campaign for what he characterized as a failure to deploy sufficient "negative firepower" against Trump, particularly with respect to the felony convictions Trump faced in 2024. "There was a decision in the 2024 Democratic leadership not to engage in negative advertising at the scale required," the report said.

A Trump campaign attack ad that highlighted Harris's previous support for taxpayer-funded gender-affirming surgeries for prison inmates was singled out as a defining moment. Democratic pollsters concluded, according to the report, that there was no available counter-message that would have worked unless Harris was willing to change her position, which she did not do.

The report's broader argument is that the party has been in a slow decline since 2008. "Since the high point of the 2008 Obama landslide, when he received nearly 10 million more votes than John McCain, the Democratic Party has vacillated between stagnation and retrogression," it said. The autopsy warned against treating 2024 as a narrow loss that could be addressed with marginal adjustments, calling that view "denialist at its core."

What Was Left Out

The omissions drew as much attention as the contents. The autopsy did not address former President Joe Biden's decision to seek a second term, the rushed selection of Harris to replace him after Biden dropped out in July 2024, or the divide within the party over the war in Gaza.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said the absence of any discussion of Gaza was "notable" and declined to say whether she supported Martin's continued leadership. Margaret DeReus, executive director of the Institute for Middle East Understanding, said in a statement that the author had told her organization the DNC's own internal data had found Biden's support for Israel to be a net negative for Democrats in 2024 — material she said should also be released.

Martin announced during a staff call Thursday that Rivera was no longer working with the DNC in any capacity. He said the committee had repeatedly requested but never received a list of people Rivera interviewed, nor transcripts or notes from those conversations. Rivera, a longtime friend of Martin's who was not paid for the work, did not respond to requests for comment.

Backlash Against Martin

The release set off a fresh round of criticism of Martin from within the party. Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts told Axios that Martin "should resign." Former DNC Vice Chair David Hogg called the autopsy and the months-long fight over its release "a demoralizing joke" and said the committee needed new leadership.

Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York said he was "concerned that the DNC appears to be in a state of almost terminal decline." Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, who backed former Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler over Martin in last year's chair race, said the party would be better off "if we get a new DNC." Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, wrote that "it's hard to imagine anyone handling anything worse than Ken Martin handled the DNC autopsy."

Other Democrats stood by Martin. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Martin should remain in his post. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who supported Martin's bid for the chairmanship, said she was confident he would "find his footing." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries both declined to weigh in on the report's contents. Jeffries said he had not yet read it.

There is no formal mechanism for DNC members to remove a sitting chair, although the body can hold a no-confidence vote. Martin's term runs through the 2028 election cycle.

A Party Behind on Cash and Direction

The autopsy fight comes against the backdrop of a Democratic National Committee that has struggled financially under Martin's leadership. The most recent campaign finance filings show the DNC held $14 million in the bank at the end of last month, compared with $124 million for the Republican National Committee. The committee's debt exceeds its cash reserves.

Democrats have nonetheless overperformed in off-year and special elections since Trump returned to office, winning the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey last November and posting gains in down-ballot contests across the country. A New York Times/Siena College poll this week found Democrats with a substantial generic-ballot advantage heading into the midterms, even as their own voters expressed widespread frustration with the party's direction.

"This was a major mistake," Martin told staff Thursday, according to a person familiar with the call. "I own it, and now it's time for us to move forward at the DNC, and I hope that you'll move forward with me." The next meeting of DNC members is scheduled for later this summer.