RootsAction, a progressive grassroots organization, attacked the Democratic National Committee's official autopsy of the 2024 election as fundamentally flawed and evasive.
The group released a statement after DNC Chair Ken Martin released the long-delayed 129-page report. RootsAction criticized the document for fixating on ad spending and fundraising while ignoring Democratic platform planks, policy positions, and the broader political context of the election defeat.
The organization highlighted two glaring omissions. The word "affordability," which RootsAction identifies as the election's dominant voter concern, appears only twice across 129 pages. More striking, neither "Gaza" nor "Israel" appears anywhere in the report, despite the Middle East conflict shaping Democratic turnout and voter sentiment throughout 2024.
RootsAction suggested the DNC attempted damage control by distancing itself from the report's contents through what the group called a "hasty, almost amateurish markup" designed to deflect criticism of the document.
The autopsy's release followed months of pressure for accountability following Vice President Kamala Harris's loss to Republican Donald Trump in November 2024. Democrats faced intense internal questioning about campaign strategy, message discipline, and whether the party adequately addressed voter concerns on inflation, healthcare costs, and Gaza's humanitarian crisis.
Progressive activists argue the DNC's analysis avoids reckoning with substantive failures in messaging and policy articulation. Rather than examining how Democrats communicated on issues voters prioritized, the report emphasizes spending metrics and fundraising mechanics. This technical approach sidesteps harder questions about whether the party's actual positions resonated with working-class and younger voters who shifted rightward.
The critique from RootsAction reflects broader Democratic tensions between establishment leadership and progressive wings over the party's direction. The group's scathing response signals that a formal autopsy, however