Has the DNC Learned Nothing Since 2024?

The party's refusal to release its own autopsy of the last election is an alarming sign

I wasn’t planning on writing a post today, but then I saw the following story in The New York Times.

The Democratic National Committee is killing its autopsy of the 2024 election.

Ken Martin, the chairman of the D.N.C., said on Thursday that he had decided not to publish a report that he ordered months ago into what went wrong for the Democratic Party last year. Party officials have conducted more than 300 interviews with Democrats in all 50 states to create a document that Mr. Martin had once pitched as crucial to charting a path forward.

The backstory here is that the DNC had been working for nearly a year on a report examining why Democrats lost to a convicted felon in 2024, with recommendations on how to avoid that fate in the future.

These sorts of reports are relatively standard after a brutal loss, although the DNC infamously did not do one after Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in 2016.

It was a positive sign that the DNC was willing to study the loss. They seemed to be undertaking a rigorous process, spearheaded by clear-eyed professionals.

The fact that they are refusing to release the report is a mind-bogglingly stupid decision that suggests the party may have learned no lessons from the recent past.

1. These Autopsies Have Value

Ever since the race was called for Trump, Democrats have been locked in a massive battle over why we lost and where to go from here. There are basic disputes over the origins of the loss. Was it Biden’s fault? Did the Harris campaign make tactical errors? Were Democrats too progressive — or not progressive enough?