1. What\u2019s not in it: Joe Biden staying in the race for as long as he did<\/p>\n
The decision by Biden \u2013 and the party apparatus around him \u2013 to seek re-election despite evident cognitive decline and alarm over his age, and the months following in which donors, elected officials and senior Democrats privately acknowledged concerns they refused to raise publicly, goes entirely unexamined.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Harris became the Democratic nominee without a single primary vote being cast in her favor.<\/p>\n
While switching Harris in was credited in the report with boosting down-ballot Democrats, the candidate anointment is treated as an event that happened to the party rather than a crisis the party created and then managed badly.<\/p>\n
2. What\u2019s not in it: Gaza, at all<\/p>\n
Your control+F is not broken: in the nearly 200 pages of reporting, the words \u201cGaza\u201d and \u201cIsrael\u201d do not appear.<\/p>\n
During the Michigan primary in 2024, the \u201cuncommitted\u201d protest movement drew more than 100,000 votes in a state Biden had won by about 154,000 in 2020, and Harris would lose by about 100,000.<\/p>\n
After the election loss, one poll from YouGov\/IMEU Policy Project<\/a> found the top concern nationally for 2020 Biden voters who didn\u2019t go for Harris in 2024 was \u201cending Israel\u2019s violence in Gaza\u201d. Another post-election poll said more than a third of Harris voters said they knew someone who didn\u2019t vote for her because of Gaza, according to Data for Progress<\/a>.<\/p>\n 3. What\u2019s not in it: Kamala Harris\u2019s identity<\/p>\n The report analyzes the male voter gap, the suburban voter gap, the rural voter gap and the Latino voter shift in considerable detail.<\/p>\n It never once examines whether Harris\u2019s race and gender shaped media coverage, voter perception, or the specific lines of attack deployed against her \u2013 even as it implicitly acknowledges that she faced a uniquely difficult environment as a candidate.<\/p>\n 4. What\u2019s not in it: Joe Rogan <\/p>\n While the report devotes considerable space to the Democrats\u2019 failure to reach young men on digital platforms, their over-reliance on legacy broadcast media and the need to meet voters \u201cwhere they are\u201d. Trump\u2019s appearance on the Rogan podcast was one of the most-watched political interviews of the year, reaching an audience of millions of exactly the kind of voters Democrats lost.<\/p>\n The decision not to accept a similar invitation (reportedly declined by the Harris campaign) is not mentioned.<\/p>\n The report states that \u201ccampaign leadership estimated around $150m was invested on voter contact\u201d, then notes that this \u201cis simply too small a piece of the pie\u201d.<\/p>\n In comparison, the campaign invested \u201c$1.04bn in media expenditures\u201d. Under the party\u2019s own traditional budget frameworks, voter contact spending should have been closer to $300m.<\/p>\n The gap, the report suggests, reflected an outdated \u201cstrategy of scarcity\u201d that no longer made sense given the amount of money available.<\/p>\n 6. What\u2019s in it: no research on Kamala Harris, while pollsters in the dark<\/p>\n Perhaps the most damning words in the document: \u201cAn incumbent vice-president. With no research to share once she became the nominee.\u201d<\/p>\n The report reveals that when Kamala Harris entered the race, her own team discovered \u201cthere was no self-research on the vice-president to guide the development of the research instruments\u201d. The White House, it concludes, \u201cdid not position or prepare the vice-president\u201d, calling it \u201ca massive missed opportunity\u201d.<\/p>\n And in a remarkable admission, the report reveals that the Harris campaign\u2019s internal polling team did not see advertisements before they aired. They learned about them, in some cases, by reading the press.<\/p>\n 7. What\u2019s in it: annotations<\/p>\n One notable feature of the report is that it is filled with annotations about the claims contained in the report.<\/p>\n At the top of each page, a red disclaimer reads: \u201cThis document reflects the views of the author, not the DNC. The DNC was not provided with the underlying sourcing, interviews or supporting data for many of the assertions contained herein and therefore cannot independently verify the claims presented.\u201d<\/p>\n Elsewhere in the document, annotations raise concerns about the accuracy of the findings. Under the subhead \u201cWHAT HAPPENED (ELECTORAL REVIEW)\u201d, on page 21, an annotation reads \u201cno evidence for many claims in this section\u201d. Other sections include annotations that state that \u201cpublic reporting and data contradict several underlying assumptions\u201d, \u201cclaim contradicts public reporting\u201d, \u201cmethodology appears internally inconsistent\u201d and \u201cnumbers appear inaccurate based on public data\u201d.<\/p>\n Other annotations note that some sections, such as the \u201cconclusion\u201d section, were \u201cnot provided by the author\u201d.<\/p>\n In a lengthy statement on Thursday along with the release of the report, Ken Martin, the DNC chair, said that he released the report as he received it \u201cin its entirety, unedited unabridged \u2013 with annotations for claims that couldn\u2019t be verified\u201d.<\/p>\n 8. What\u2019s in it: the male voter collapse was solvable<\/p>\n North Carolina\u2019s governor, Josh Stein, won 51% of male voters in the same election in which Harris won just 40%. The report acknowledges this gap directly, suggesting the national campaign\u2019s approach to male voters \u2013 particularly young men of color \u2013 was a strategic choice that failed, not an inevitable demographic shift.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1. 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