Democrats Still Misread 2024

The Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) so-called 2024 Presidential Campaign "autopsy" analyses the decisions and actions that led to Kamala Harris's defeat. It is far from a serious analysis of what went wrong in 2024, and who was truly responsible for that defeat.

The report discloses five key points demonstrating the disconnect between the Democratic leadership and the political reality they faced. The first consists of blaming then-President Joe Biden (2021-2025) for not withdrawing from the race earlier, leaving Harris with only 107 days to build a competitive candidacy. According to the report, that short timeframe prevented the then–vice president from developing a political identity of her own, resulting in an improvised and reactive campaign.

The second point argues that Kamala Harris never fully distanced herself from Biden's image and the negativity surrounding his administration. The third contends the Democratic Party lost touch with key voters, particularly working-class voters, independents, and less ideologically driven segments of the electorate. The fourth point (and the only one I can comfortable concede) acknowledges that Harris's campaign was overly focused on attacking Trump, rather than building a positive and compelling message. Finally, the post-mortem mentions organisational and communication errors that hampered efforts to attract decisive voters in key states. This last point very lightly absolves the leadership of responsibility for this embarrassing defeat.

However, the document's conclusions are insufficient and, in many ways, deeply biased. Rather than an honest assessment, the post-mortem seems to seek a scapegoat in Joe Biden while exonerating Kamala Harris of fundamental responsibility for the electoral defeat. From the outset, Harris was never a particularly charismatic, popular, or electorally strong candidate. The height of absurdity is that even now the former vice president seems tempted to run again for president in 2028.

The Democratic Party has once again demonstrated a remarkable ease in abandoning Joe Biden and downplaying what was, in many ways, a far more effective presidency than his own party now admits. In 2020, Biden was clearly the best choice among more than twenty Democratic hopefuls. He had over 47 years of political experience, an unparalleled legislative record, and a genuine ability to connect with broad segments of the electorate thanks to his message of moderation, unity, and personal empathy.

Biden managed to unite virtually all factions of the Democratic Party and, as a result, became the most voted-for presidential candidate in U.S. history. He was also one of the few recent presidents able to maintain a working relationship with Republican sectors and secure significant legislative victories, such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, in addition to overseeing a post-pandemic economic recovery with historically low levels of unemployment.

While Biden probably shouldn't have sought re-election in 2024, it was the Democratic Party itself that pushed him out of the race only after he had secured the presidential nomination again, thus creating a chaotic and politically improvised transition.

Regarding Kamala Harris, it's difficult to ignore that her political weaknesses were evident long before 2024. In the 2020 Democratic primaries, her candidacy collapsed before even reaching the initial voting stage due to a lack of support and clarity in her campaign proposals. Her 2024 candidacy relied more on institutional party backing than on a proven ability to build her own electoral coalition.

Furthermore, Harris's acceptance of the presidential nomination without proposing a quick primary or an open convention as a democratic selection mechanism reflected a logic of partisan imposition rather than democratic legitimacy. Her campaign ended up focusing primarily on attacking Trump, without developing a clear narrative about what she stood for or the political project she wished to lead.

Unlike Biden in 2020, Harris never managed to project an image of conciliation or political inclusivity. On the contrary, she ended up being perceived as a divisive figure, unable to connect with moderate and independent segments of the electorate. Biden succeeded in attracting moderate Republican voters and building a broad coalition; Harris simply couldn't. There's a reason he won and she didn't.

It is worrying to see how the Democratic leadership seems more interested in blaming Biden than in acknowledging the party's structural flaws and the real weaknesses of Harris's candidacy. If Democrats want to be seen as a serious alternative again, they will need to abandon politics based solely on fear of Trump and rebuild a coherent, competitive, and genuinely inclusive message.

This report seems less like an electoral autopsy and more like an attempt to protect certain figures within the party while conveniently using Biden as the scapegoat for a much more complex defeat. The Democratic Party deliberately avoided open competition in 2024, and it has cost them dearly.

If Democrats believe that 2024 was solely a matter of age and not also of leadership, messaging, and political legitimacy, then they probably still don't understand why they lost. Because if the final conclusion of this autopsy is that Kamala Harris was never part of the problem, then the Democratic Party has likely already found the perfect formula for losing again in 2028: re-nominating her.

Illustrations: Will Allen/Europinion