WASHINGTON (TNND) — After vowing to conduct a full audit on the Democrat’s national political strategy following the party’s 2024 election losses, Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin shared that the findings of the Democrats’ autopsy report will not be made public.
“We 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 gone blue in decades,” Martin said in a statement.
The decision against releasing the reports comes on the heels of Democrats’ celebrating major victories during last month’s election, in which Democrats won the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey by wide margins. The gubernatorial elections were closely watched across the country and were deemed a bellwether of voters’ attitudes toward President Donald Trump ahead of the 2026 midterms.
“In our conversations with stakeholders from across the Democratic ecosystem, we are aligned on what’s important, and that’s learning from the past and winning the future. Here’s our North Star: does this help us win? If the answer is no, it’s a distraction from the core mission,” Martin said in a statement.
The postmortem review of the 2024 election, in which Democratic presidential Kamala Harris lost every single swing state and the entire election to Trump, and Democrats lost control of the lower chamber, consisted of hundreds of interviews with individuals from all 50 states. The review includes insights on fundraising, how to improve campaign organizing,how to address voters’ concerns of the party, and how to be more responsive to voters.
Prior to being elected to serve as the DNC Chair, Martin expressed during an interview last year that there was a need to look at “everything” to understand why the Democrats did so poorly and to ensure those mistakes aren’t repeated again. He shared that the election results revealed that many political consultants “need to go.”
In February, Martin criticized previous DNC leadership for not releasing the results of the 2016 election postmortem audit.
“There was a post-election review done many years ago, right after the ’16 election, right? And that was never released. The DNC spent a lot of time and money on it, and it wasn’t even released to the DNC members. So what happened with that, right? Was there any utility in doing that?” Martin said.
Martin ensured that the 2024 election results would be released.
“Of course it will be released, right? It will be released to our members and we all have to learn from that,” Martin said.
“There has to be some lessons that we bring on so that we can operationalize it… What are our marching orders? What did we learn from this last election that can help inform the future and help put us back on track? Absolutely, 100%”
Martin’s failure to follow through on his promise to release the results of the audit has garnered sharp backlash from countless Democrat operatives and commentators.
“This is a very bad decision that reeks of the caution and complacency that brought us to this moment,” Pod Save America’s Dan Pfeiffer wrote on X.
His co-host, Jon Favreau, shared Pfieffer’s frustration.
“Unreal. The DNC’s actual position is that if the public knew more about what Democrats got wrong in the last election, it would hurt the party’s chances in the next election,” concurred his co-host Jon Favreau.
“How does this rebuild trust between the party insiders and grassroots activists and organizers?”
