Democratic National Committee Releases Draft Report on 2024 Election Loss

The Democratic National Committee released a 192-page draft report on May 21 examining the party's 2024 presidential election loss to President Donald Trump. The document, prepared by consultant Paul Rivera, states that the White House did not effectively support Harris over three and a half years to improve her standing before the candidate switch.

It also says the Harris campaign did not sufficiently separate itself from former President Joe Biden.

The report claims Democrats failed to slow Trump's momentum and did not engage in negative advertising at the scale required. It notes that supporters of the approach argued Trump's negatives were known and that the priority was introducing a relatively unknown nominee after the candidate switch.

The document further states that the Harris campaign relied too heavily on portraying Trump as unacceptable rather than making the case for why Harris should be elected. It adds that the campaign did not do enough outreach to rural or irregular voters.

Martin said he was releasing the report as received and that it does not meet his standards. He apologized for not releasing it earlier, stating that withholding it created an even bigger distraction. Martin added that transparency is paramount and that people need to be able to trust the Democratic Party.

The report does not mention the Israel-Gaza war or either country by name. It also contains multiple errors, misspellings, and faulty numbers according to the DNC and ABC News review.

The conclusion section is missing, with the DNC noting that the section was not provided by the author. A disclaimer on every page states that the document reflects the views of the author and that the DNC was not provided with underlying sourcing or supporting data.

Former DNC vice chair David Hogg called the report a disaster and a demoralizing joke in a statement urging Martin to resign. The report claims attack ads featuring Harris' support for transgender rights were effective during the campaign.