Author of Democrats' 2024 election failure analysis says party omitted key chapter

The Democratic National Committee last May released a draft of its analysis of the missteps in the 2024 election in which its nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, lost to President Donald Trump. The committee said the document was released unfinished in its entirety in the interest of transparency. 

According to its author, however, the committee omitted a key chapter. Paul Rivera, the author of the autopsy, provided the chapter to The New York Times. The chapter dealt with former President Joe Biden's decision to run for reelection and the influence of the operative class that had become wealthy off politics while steering the party's strategies. 

Rivera said he had handed a three-ring binder containing the original draft, which contained the omitted chapter, to the party's chairman, Ken Martin, in January. Martin denied that the chapter was included in the draft he received from Rivera. 

The chapter suggests that Biden's decision to run for reelection was a "single point of failure" in 2024, and it analyzed the party's loss of support among Hispanic, Black, Asian American and Native American voters. It also raised concern that most senior Democratic strategists in 2024 were "financially secure" and unfamiliar with the primary concerns of many Americans.