Democratic Party releases 2024 'Autopsy' report

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]News is your local election headquarters. Local current Democratic leaders are analyzing the impact of what the National Democratic Party calls its 2024 autopsy report. That report details plans to win elections and promote candidates in the midterms and the 2028 election. 17's political reporter Vincent Damonte spoke with the current Democratic chair about if the released report will hurt or help the Democratic party. An autopsy report normally is an opportunity to understand the cause of death for an individual. But in the political world, it's an opportunity to see what killed a political party's chances of winning a contested election and what can be done to win in the future.

[00:00:40]>> Let's start with saying that being chair of any Democratic party or any political party really is not an easy job. I mean, whether it's here at the local level for Kern County, at the state level with Rusty Hicks, or at the national level with Ken, uh, I mean, this is very, very difficult to to break down.

[00:00:55]>> Democratic National Convention Chair Ken Martin originally commissioned the autopsy report in early 2025, but decided against its release. However, after pushes from party insiders and the upcoming midterm primaries, he changed his mind. Local party chair Christian Romo says the decision to drop the 194page report was paved with good intentions but a bad political move.

[00:01:18]>> It really was not done in the best manner. I think our DNC chair explained that that you know the that the findings were not very consistent were not very scientific. So although I appreciate him trying to be transparent and you know kind of lay it all out there but what it really did is really upset the party and its base. The report details several areas where Democrats failed in the 2024 election, namely messaging issues and not using campaign funds effectively.

[00:01:41]Democratic strategist Paul Rivera, who authored the report, said the Democrats should have focused more on the issues rather than running on an anti-Trump platform. He also explained more should have been done during the Biden administration to protect Vice President Kla Harris from Republican attacks, including her role as border zar. I don't think that it's necessarily President Biden's fault or or or uh Vice President Kla Harris's fault. It was just the circumstances we were dealt with and this goes back to planning. The report also recommended what local and state arms of the party should focus on.

[00:02:13]Some include spending more money towards policy focused advertisements and finding candidates best tailored for their respective communities.

[00:02:20]>> We should be looking at these different circumstances across the country where Democrats had big wins, especially after 2024. We need to actually look at the polls and the data and the sentiment of the voters in the base there and saying why why did you vote for that person?

[00:02:32]>> Vincent Damonte, 17 News.