The Democrat Party spent 18 months demanding answers about why Kamala Harris lost.
Today they got a 192-page report with the executive summary page left completely blank.
Then the chairman who commissioned it fired the man who wrote it.
What Democrats Paid For
Ken Martin personally hired Paul Rivera to write the autopsy.
Rivera wasn't paid. He worked on it part-time.
He didn't start contacting major campaign officials until fall 2025 – nearly a year after Election Day.
He never gave the DNC the interview list, the source notes, or the supporting data behind his conclusions.
He turned in an incomplete draft with the executive summary missing, the conclusion missing, and "Notes for the Reader" missing.
Martin sat on it for six months.
https://twitter.com/kenmartin73/status/2057462700221825507?s=20
When he finally released it this morning – under pressure from rank-and-file Democrats who had gone public with their anger, and after CNN obtained the document and was about to publish it regardless – Martin announced on a staff call that Rivera was no longer associated with the DNC.
The document Martin put out carries a red-ink disclaimer on every page stating the DNC "was not provided with the underlying sourcing, interviews, or supporting data for many of the assertions contained herein."
The page titled "Executive Summary" has one line of red text: "This section was not provided by author."
That's the Democrat Party's official accounting of the worst presidential loss in a generation.
What the Report Actually Says
The findings that made it into the document are damning on their own.
Democrats gutted state party infrastructure. They slashed voter registration.
They abandoned grassroots organizing in the communities they needed most – middle America and the South, where Republicans have spent a decade quietly building.
Harris wrote off rural America entirely.
The campaign relied on Trump being unacceptable rather than making an affirmative case for Harris herself – a conclusion Martin annotated with "No evidence provided for this claim."
The report is also silent on Gaza.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2057473759225827752?s=20
Rivera met privately with a pro-Palestinian group in July 2025 and told them – on record – that DNC data showed Biden's Israel policy was a net negative for Democrats in 2024.
That finding appears nowhere in the 192 pages.
Democrats lost Latino men by double digits. They lost every swing state.
Trump won the popular vote for the first time in Republican history.
The autopsy explains pieces of how that happened.
It just doesn't have a conclusion.
The DNC Is Broke and Their Chairman Just Torched His Own Credibility
The Republican National Committee reported $124 million cash on hand this week – zero debt.
The DNC reported negative $3 million after accounting for $17 million in debt.
Martin has been chair for 16 months.
Democrats are heading into what should be a favorable midterm environment and their national committee is broke, leaderless, and now the subject of a self-inflicted credibility collapse.
https://twitter.com/AndrewKolvet/status/2057474991965282607?s=20
Amanda Litman, who runs the Democrat-aligned organization Run for Something, put it plainly: "The execution, the roll out and the coverup are indicative of how Ken Martin is fundamentally not up to the task."
That's a Democrat.
Martin promised transparency when he ran for this job.
He said "of course it will be released" on camera before he was elected.
Then he buried it for six months, released it the morning CNN was publishing it anyway, and fired the author before lunch.
Republicans don't need the 192 pages.
They watched the whole thing play out November 5, 2024 – and they're watching Democrats prove they learned nothing every single day since.
Sources:
- Stephen Sorace, "Democrats release 2024 election autopsy that chair says 'does not meet my standards,'" Fox News, May 21, 2026.
- Hannah Brennan, "Dems demand release of hidden DNC autopsy after 2024 collapse: 'We got our butts kicked,'" Fox News, May 19, 2026.
- Tyler Olson, "DNC chair Ken Martin grilled by Jon Favreau for withholding 2024 autopsy report," Fox News, April 29, 2026.
