5 findings from DNC’s After Action report: Harris ‘messaging misalignment’

The Democratic National Committee released a nearly 200-page After Action report last week, a year and a half after then-Vice President Kamala Harris lost the 2024 presidential election to President Donald Trump. The report contrasts the Harris campaign with other successful and unsuccessful Democratic candidates from 2024 and outlines a path toward future electoral victories.

The report’s release follows the party’s successes in last year’s off-year elections in New Jersey and Virginia, as it seeks to regain control of Congress in this year’s midterm elections. In a statement on Thursday, DNC Chairman Ken Martin explained that he had commissioned a “comprehensive review of the 2024 election” but chose to “shelve” it late last year, determining that “it wasn’t ready for primetime.”

“In short, I didn’t want to create a distraction,” Martin said. “Ironically, in doing so, I ended up creating an even bigger distraction. And for that I sincerely apologize.”

“I am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards, and it won’t meet your standards. I don’t endorse what’s in this report, or what’s left out of it,” he added. “I could not in good faith put the DNC’s stamp of approval on it. But transparency is paramount. So, today I am releasing the report as I received it – in its entirety, unedited and unabridged – with annotations for claims that couldn’t be verified.”

Here are five findings from the report.