{"id":46834,"date":"2026-02-23T11:44:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=46834"},"modified":"2026-02-23T11:44:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:44:44","slug":"scoop-dems-working-on-secret-report-found-gaza-cost-harris-votes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/02\/23\/scoop-dems-working-on-secret-report-found-gaza-cost-harris-votes\/","title":{"rendered":"Scoop: Dems working on secret report found Gaza cost Harris votes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/_next\/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.axios.com%2FV6fEU2JbnKYsCtsSLe__RJY5HC8%3D%2F52x0%2Fsmart%2F2025%2F09%2F26%2F1758919563377.jpg&amp;w=128&amp;q=75\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/authors\/holly.otterbein@axios.com\">Holly Otterbein<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>February 22, 2026 (axios.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/GzJ5PLa3q9UW61hA7wnULkTip-I=\/0x0:3024x1701\/1920x1080\/2026\/02\/21\/1771644021497.jpg?w=3840\" alt=\"Kamala Harris holds a microphone while sitting in a blue chair in front of a blue background.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Former Vice President Harris at the London Literature Festival 2025. (Photo by James Manning\/PA Images via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Top Democratic officials who worked on the party&#8217;s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/12\/19\/dnc-2024-election-autopsy-backlash\">still-secret autopsy<\/a>&nbsp;of the 2024 election concluded that Kamala Harris lost significant support because of the Biden administration&#8217;s approach to the war in Gaza, Axios has learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Why it matters:<\/strong>&nbsp;The Democratic National Committee&#8217;s research on what went wrong in 2024 has been under lock and key since party leaders decided last year to hide it from the public \u2014 a reflection of how explosively it could resonate within the party and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Progressive and moderate Democrats are particularly divided over Israel, with the left more critical of that nation&#8217;s actions against Palestinians in Gaza and many questioning the U.S.&#8217;s unwavering support for Israel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Zoom in:<\/strong>&nbsp;During her brief campaign Harris sought to strike a balance, showing strong support for Israel while calling for a ceasefire and expressing sympathy for Palestinians under attack in Gaza as well as the hostages being held by Hamas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Driving the news:<\/strong>&nbsp;DNC aides putting together the report on Harris&#8217; loss to Donald Trump had a closed-door conversation with a pro-Palestinian group about the Israel-Gaza conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Activists from the IMEU Policy Project told the DNC that the Biden-Harris administration&#8217;s support for Israel was a factor in the party&#8217;s losses because it drained support from some young people and progressives.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hamid Bendaas, a spokesperson for the IMEU Policy Project, said that during the meeting &#8220;the DNC shared with us that their own data also found that policy was, in their words, a &#8216;net-negative&#8217; in the 2024 election.&#8221; Two other senior aides at the pro-Palestinian organization also said the DNC had drawn that conclusion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Axios independently verified that Democratic officials conducting the autopsy believed the issue harmed the party&#8217;s standing with some voters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The intrigue:<\/strong>&nbsp;The IMEU Policy Project is now accusing the DNC of withholding its report in part because of its findings on Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>DNC spokesperson Kendall Witmer denied that.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When DNC officials&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/12\/19\/dnc-2024-election-autopsy-backlash\">announced last year<\/a>&nbsp;that they wouldn&#8217;t release the audit, they said it was because they didn&#8217;t want the report to distract from the work of winning elections.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What they&#8217;re saying:&nbsp;<\/strong>The DNC confirmed that it spoke with the IMEU Policy Project and hundreds of others as part of its analysis and said it was grateful for the conversation but didn&#8217;t provide additional details about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Bendaas said the DNC should share its findings on Israel widely throughout the party ahead of the &#8220;critical&#8221; midterms.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>DNC officials have said they&#8217;re integrating their research from the audit into discussions with candidates and campaigns.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Asked for comment, a Harris aide<\/strong>&nbsp;pointed to the former vice president&#8217;s recent comments about the war in Gaza on a tour stop for her memoir, &#8220;107 Days.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;We should have done more as an administration,&#8221; Harris said at the event, adding &#8220;we should have spoken publicly about our criticism&#8221; of how Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu executed the war.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Flashback:&nbsp;<\/strong>Harris&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/09\/22\/harris-biden-book-gaza-israel-trump\">said in her book&nbsp;<\/a>that President Biden&#8217;s unpopularity, which she argued was partly because of &#8220;his perceived blank check&#8221; to Netanyahu, harmed her in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Harris wrote that she privately &#8220;pleaded&#8221; with Biden to show more empathy for civilians in Gaza. But during her campaign, she declined to publicly break with him over Israel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>facebook (opens in new window)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>twitter (opens in new window)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>linkedin (opens in new window)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>email (opens in new window)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>sms (opens in new window)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=axios.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>February 22, 2026 (axios.com) Top Democratic officials who worked on the party&#8217;s&nbsp;still-secret autopsy&nbsp;of the 2024 election concluded that Kamala Harris lost significant support because of the Biden administration&#8217;s approach to the war in Gaza, Axios has learned. Why it matters:&nbsp;The Democratic National Committee&#8217;s research on what went wrong in 2024&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/02\/23\/scoop-dems-working-on-secret-report-found-gaza-cost-harris-votes\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46834"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46835,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46834\/revisions\/46835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}