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As part of its secret “autopsy” report on how former Vice President Kamala Harris lost the 2024 presidential election to President Donald Trump, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) now seems to concede that the Biden administration’s support for Israel amid its continued genocide against Palestinians in Gaza played a large role in her losing votes, sources with knowledge of the report’s contents say.
According to reporting from Axios, members of the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) Policy Project, who were given access to the autopsy report, claim that the DNC’s own data indicated that Harris’s backing of the Biden administration’s pro-Israel policies led voters (particularly younger ones) to withhold support for her as a candidate for president.
“The DNC shared with us that their own data also found that policy was, in their words, a ‘net-negative’ in the 2024 election,” said Hamid Bendaas, a spokesperson for the IMEU Policy Project.
Two other IMEU Policy Project sources came to the same conclusion regarding the report’s contents, and Axios itself said it had “independently verified that Democratic officials conducting the autopsy believed the issue harmed the party’s standing with some voters.”
Harris received just over 75 million votes from Americans overall, while Trump received over 77 million. By contrast, in 2020, Biden received over 81 million votes, while Trump received close to the same number of votes that he received against Harris, attaining support from 74 million Americans.
Polling conducted by Data for Progress shortly after the 2024 election confirmed that a significant portion of voters withheld support for Harris. That survey demonstrated 36 percent of voters knew at least one individual in their personal lives who didn’t vote for her because of her support for Israel.
Last year, DNC chair Ken Martin initially promised to make the party’s autopsy report public. But the DNC backtracked on that idea in December, claiming the decision to keep it private was made in order to focus on maintaining electoral successes Democrats have seen in recent months.
Privately, DNC officials expressed concerns that releasing the document could embarrass the party, and wanted to avoid another debate on how the election was lost.
Harris has expressed slight remorse over not differentiating her campaign from the Biden administration’s actions relating to support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. During a recent tour stop promoting her new book, she said the administration “should have spoken publicly about our criticism” of Israel, and said she had privately “pleaded” with former President Joe Biden to become more empathetic to Palestinians.
However, during her own campaign — which she had complete control and management of, without administration interference — Harris also refused to express those disagreements out loud, stating in one interview there was “not a thing that comes to mind” over what she would have done differently than him while serving as vice president.
During the Democratic National Convention in 2024, which was co-managed by the DNC and the Harris campaign, delegates who expressed opposition to the Biden administration’s actions (and inaction) relating to the ongoing genocide in Gaza were often ignored. During the count of delegates to determine the party’s presidential nominee, Kentucky delegates who were “uncommitted” were not acknowledged at all in the roll call vote.
“As one of Kentucky’s uncommitted delegates, I am sad to report that 32,908 Democratic Kentuckians’ voices were not upheld at last night’s roll call at the DNC,” said Victoria Olds, an uncommitted delegate from that state who spoke to Truthout at the time.
The DNC also refused to allow pro-Palestinian speakers to take part in the convention, even though their speeches weren’t set to be critical of the Biden administration. Georgia House of Representatives member and Palestinian American Ruwa Romman, for example, had submitted a draft speech to the DNC that aimed to emphasize Trump’s racist comments toward Palestinians and omitted any judgment against either Biden or Harris. Party leaders refused requests by uncommitted delegates to have Romman speak.
The party also chose to ignore, rather than acknowledge, large pro-Palestinian demonstrations happening throughout Chicago during the week of the convention. Around 30,000 demonstrators took part in those protests, with some stating that Harris’s refusal to oppose genocide would lead them to not vote for her.
“Our votes are no longer free or a given just for the sake that we are Democrats,” a demonstrator named Inan said. “[Harris] has to earn our votes by ending genocide today, tonight.”
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