Friday on the RCP Podcast, the panel argued that DNC Chair Ken Martin’s decision to “spike” a formal post-2024 campaign “autopsy” has backfired and turned what was meant to be an internal review into a distracting liability. RCP co-founder Tom Bevan questioned the whole premise of publishing a formal campaign autopsy. “When did the parties decide that they needed to go back and pick through the bones of each election loss in a detailed, survey-based way? Republicans famously did it after 2012, but … these autopsies are kind of stupid, to be honest with you.” “It’s basic messaging,” Andrew Walworth commented. “If you don’t want people focused on it, why not drop an executive summary late on a Friday night, before Christmas? And by Monday, people will have moved on. Instead, now I really want to know what’s in the report! We’re talking about it. Every reporter in Washington is trying to get their hands on that report.” “This is now something they wish they had never commissioned,” Washington bureau chief Carl Cannon said. “They don’t want it in print that other Democrats are saying things like: We treated transgenders in sports like they were bigger than the economy, and that hurt us because people thought we weren’t paying attention to the big issues. They don’t want that in writing.” “The second thing is when Ken Martin initially commissioned this report, my guess is he thought he would never have to see Kamala Harris again,” Cannon added.
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