The Democratic National Committee has decided to keep its long-promised post-mortem of the party’s disastrous 2024 election losses under wraps, walking back a public pledge by Chair Ken Martin and underscoring lingering turmoil inside a party still struggling to come to terms with its defeat by President Donald Trump.
The decision, announced Wednesday, marks a sharp reversal for the DNC, which had previously said it would release a full accounting of what went wrong in 2024. Instead, party leaders are now choosing secrecy over transparency as they attempt to shift attention toward what they see as a more favorable midterm environment.
According to a DNC official granted anonymity to discuss the internal process, the completed review is based on hundreds of interviews with Democratic operatives across all 50 states. During that process, some Democrats raised concerns about making the findings public, arguing that another round of finger-pointing over how the party lost the White House would be counterproductive. Rather than reopen old wounds, party leaders opted to emphasize recent off-year election wins, including victories in New Jersey and Virginia and stronger-than-expected performances in special elections.
The committee previewed portions of the review to top donors and Democratic stakeholders in October, but has declined to release the document to the public. Notably absent from excerpts were references to former President Joe Biden’s decision to seek reelection despite his age and a widely panned debate performance. Democrats remain divided over what ultimately led to Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss, but the omission of Biden’s role has raised eyebrows even within the party.
In a statement, Martin said the DNC has “completed a comprehensive review of what happened in 2024” and is “putting our learnings into motion.” He framed the decision as a strategic choice. “Here’s our North Star: does this help us win?” Martin said. “If the answer is no, it’s a distraction from the core mission.”
That rationale has done little to quiet criticism from within Democratic ranks. The party is still grappling with low approval ratings, even among its own voters, and remains deeply split over the lessons of 2024. Outside groups, ranging from the progressive Way to Win to the center-left Welcome nonprofit, have released their own audits of the party’s failures, often offering conflicting diagnoses. Just last week, some DNC members publicly called on leadership to provide more answers.
The anonymous DNC official described some broad themes from the internal review, including concerns about organizing strategies, outdated technology, and losses among younger voters. The excerpts painted Democrats as defensive on issues like immigration and public safety — areas that tend to favor Republicans — without naming specific campaigns or candidates responsible for that posture.
The review also urged campaigns to prioritize meaningful conversations with voters over raw metrics like doors knocked or calls made, and called for greater investment in relational organizing and year-round field operations. On data and technology, the report warned that Democratic infrastructure was outdated and overwhelmed at critical moments during the campaign, recommending modernization.
The party’s struggles with young voters were also highlighted, with the review acknowledging Republicans’ advantage in the influencer-driven media ecosystem. Democrats have admitted they were being “run circles” around online, but the DNC’s public-facing explanations stopped short of outlining a clear plan to fix the problem.
The decision to withhold the report is a notable about-face for Martin, who pledged transparency shortly after becoming chair in February. At the time, he questioned why the DNC never released its 2016 autopsy and promised the 2024 review would be made public.
“Of course it will be released,” Martin said then. Less than a year later, that promise has quietly been shelved, leaving Democrats to move forward without publicly reckoning with how they lost — and Republicans free to argue that the party is more interested in protecting itself than learning from failure.
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