Updated on: May 21, 2026 / 12:21 PM EDT / CBS News
The Democratic National Committee on Thursday released a long-awaited, 192-page autopsy of the 2024 election that party chair Ken Martin had kept private for months. Martin said he commissioned the comprehensive review to answer persistent questions within the party: how Democrats lost to Donald Trump again, how billions of dollars were spent without success, and where the party needs to change.
Martin said he was not proud of the final product and that it “does not meet my standards,” but he decided to publish the document because he believes transparency is paramount. The report carries a prominent disclaimer on every page: “This document reflects the views of the author, not the DNC. The DNC 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.” Editorial notes pepper the text, flagging passages as “no sourcing provided,” “contradicts public reporting,” or “inconsistent with data in chart.” Sources familiar with the report confirmed to CBS News that Democratic strategist Paul Rivera authored the review.
The autopsy says the review team conducted more than 1,200 interviews to evaluate the health of the party’s 57 state parties. It addresses issues such as an “enthusiasm gap” among voters but notably does not examine certain major policy controversies that dominated public debate—specifically the Israel–Gaza conflict.
Martin recounted that when he first received the report late last year, it was “not ready for primetime.” Because the author did not provide source material, Martin said correcting the report would have required starting over—re-doing interviews and re-assembling data. He initially chose not to publish the autopsy in December, shortly after Democrats scored significant wins in off-year contests, arguing he did not want to create a distraction from organizing to win. In a statement on Thursday he said that decision backfired: withholding the report produced an even larger distraction, and he apologized for that outcome.
The autopsy comes amid continuing soul-searching over the 2024 result, when Donald Trump defeated vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris and carried every battleground state that President Joe Biden had won four years earlier. Martin ordered the review in January 2025 to pinpoint failures and recommend changes.
The decision to release the document follows public pressure from many Democrats who wanted to see the findings. Rob Flaherty, deputy campaign director for the Biden and then-Harris campaigns, recently published an essay outlining what he told the team preparing the autopsy.
The release arrives as Democrats contend with internal divisions ahead of what some hope will be a strong election year. One example cited in the report’s broader context: in Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District—one of the nation’s most Democratic districts—progressive candidate Chris Rabb won the primary for the open seat, defeating several rivals including the former chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.
Party leaders now face decisions about how to act on the autopsy’s recommendations, though the DNC’s disclaimer and the report’s flagged sourcing issues may complicate how much weight the document carries in shaping future strategy.