Author of DNC's 2024 "autopsy" says he concluded Gaza war hurt Harris
The author of the Democratic National Committee's 2024 election "autopsy" confirmed an Axios report that he concluded the war in Gaza hurt Kamala Harris politically — and that he'd privately shared that assessment with a pro-Palestinian group. He said he drafted that finding late last year but never submitted it to party leadership. Why it matters: Democrats have spent months debating whether the…
Paul Rivera, the author of the Democratic National Committee's 2024 election "autopsy," has confirmed to Axios that the conflict in Gaza negatively impacted Democratic candidate Kamala Harris's political prospects. Rivera, who no longer advises the DNC, published a 564-page report on the 2024 election, delving into the electoral consequences of the war in Gaza, among other subjects.
He revealed that he privately shared his assessment with a pro-Palestinian group, though he had not submitted it to party leadership. The Democratic National Committee had previously released its autopsy, which critics accused of neglecting the war in Gaza. Rivera's subsequent report, however, contends that Harris lost thousands of votes in Michigan, particularly in Arab American-dominated communities like Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, and Hamtramck, where Green Party support surged in response to the Israel-Hamas war.
He emphasized that these losses played a significant role in the state's shift towards President Trump, though they were not the sole factor in Harris's defeat. Rivera acknowledged the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and highlighted the "political analysis is simple — the electoral results and voting shifts in Michigan and elsewhere demonstrate the impact the crisis had on the Harris campaign."
He included an AP photo of literature distributed in Michigan during the 2024 election, which read, "Do Not Vote Trump. Do Not Vote Harris. Do Not Vote Genocide," emphasizing the stakes for Democrats in the future. Despite Rivera's assertion that Jewish Americans have experienced rising antisemitism in the U.S., moderate Democrats dispute the significance of Gaza's impact on the 2024 election, citing surveys that suggest the topic is not a top concern for many voters.
Rivera has faced criticism from Democrats across the ideological spectrum for what they perceive as a flawed autopsy, including allegations that he submitted a chapter on other topics that was omitted from the public release. The DNC, however, denied these claims and maintained that Rivera had only briefly discussed the Israel-Palestine conflict, alongside other events that have influenced electoral outcomes.
Written by urgent.news from Axios's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
