Today, the Democratic National Committee finally released its long-awaited "autopsy report," detailing what went wrong when the party lost the 2024 presidential election. DNC Chair Ken Martin called the report "unedited and unabridged" and said, "It does not meet my standards, and it won’t meet your standards," in a note released alongside the typo-ridden 192-page document.
But what caught my eye about the autopsy wasn't its grammatical or spelling errors, or the bevy of highlighted sections labeled “No sourcing provided for this claim” and “Methodology appears internally inconsistent.”
Instead, I was more concerned by what wasn't there. I covered the DNC for Mother Jones back in 2024, so I know that one of the topics on many voters' minds was the genocide in Gaza: At every turn, when confronted by protesters asking her to do more to stop the slaughter, the party’s nominee, Kamala Harris, demurred. When Democrats outraged by the war asked that a single Palestinian speaker be allowed to speak onstage at the DNC—and endorse Harris in doing so—they were snubbed.
So, when I opened the autopsy report, I searched for the word "Gaza." Nothing. Then "Israel," then "genocide," then even more general topics like "war" and "foreign policy." What I learned was that the DNC report appears to eschew discussion of any of the policy reasons voters might have passed on Harris, not just her stance on Palestine.
I'm sure that many Mother Jones readers might find the issues they care about were left out, too. In that sense, the report raises as many questions as it answers.
—Sophie Hurwitz
