The Democratic Party’s decision to release its long-delayed 2024 election autopsy now — amid a favorable political climate heading into the November midterms — is political malpractice disguised as self-reflection.
At a moment when economic uncertainty tied to the war in Iran, inflation fears, and voter fatigue with President Donald J. Trump are beginning to shift momentum back toward Democrats, party leaders somehow decided this was the ideal time to reopen old wounds, relitigate former Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss, and invite another month of circular finger-pointing.
Why?
If Democrats truly believed an autopsy was necessary, it should have been released within weeks — or at most a couple of months — after the election. That is when parties traditionally assess failures, regroup, and move forward. Instead, Democrats waited nearly two years, only to release a flawed, incomplete, and internally disputed report into the political bloodstream just as the party finally had political winds at its back.
Even worse, the report reportedly omitted the two most glaring issues that dominated public discussion throughout 2024: President Joe Biden’s age and the political fallout from the administration’s handling of Gaza and Palestinian civilians. Multiple news outlets highlighted this omission.
How does an honest autopsy ignore the central concern voters expressed from the start — whether Biden, then 81, should have run again? That debate consumed cable news, donor circles, editorial boards, and kitchen-table conversations for months. Pretending it was not decisive is an insult to voters’ intelligence.
Likewise, the omission of Gaza and Palestinian issues is astonishing. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called it “pretty unbelievable” that Gaza was not mentioned at all. Democratic strategist Steve Schale asked bluntly, “Why not say this in 2024?”
Instead of presenting a credible roadmap, Democrats released a report that many in their own party immediately dismissed as incomplete, rife with errors, and politically ill-timed. In doing so, they handed Republicans fresh ammunition. The report’s release has fueled media cycles dominated by Democratic infighting, ideological disputes, and retrospective finger-pointing.
Additionally, it has distracted attention from kitchen-table issues and reinforced one of the party’s longstanding weaknesses: seeming more comfortable talking to itself than to voters.
For Democrats, the mission should now be simple: focus relentlessly on the economy, affordability, stability, and on winning back the House and possibly the Senate. Voters care far more about their grocery bills and retirement accounts than a recycled postmortem from 2024.
The autopsy may have been intended to provide closure, but it instead reopened doubts Democrats should have left buried.
