{"id":49603,"date":"2026-08-08T12:54:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=49603"},"modified":"2026-08-08T12:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:54:08","slug":"author-of-dnc-autopsy-found-gaza-policy-hurt-harris-in-2024-but-never-submitted-finding-to-party-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/08\/08\/author-of-dnc-autopsy-found-gaza-policy-hurt-harris-in-2024-but-never-submitted-finding-to-party-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Author of DNC Autopsy Found Gaza Policy Hurt Harris in 2024\u2014But Never Submitted Finding to Party Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Harris<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

US Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, campaigning in Washington, DC, faces protests from hundreds of people expressing disapproval of her administration\u2019s Gaza policy on October 29, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by Celal Gunes\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is all strange in ways that either suggest dishonesty or stupidity,\u201d said one critic.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Prager<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aug 07, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Democratic National Committee<\/a> at long last released<\/a> its \u201cautopsy\u201d report on former Vice President Kamala Harris<\/a>\u2019 loss in the 2024 election<\/a> in May, one of the most puzzling aspects was the lack of any conclusions related to her and former President Joe Biden\u2019s support for Israel\u2019s genocide<\/a> in Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holly Otterbein of Axios reported<\/a> on Thursday that the document\u2019s author, Paul Rivera, did indeed look into the issue of Gaza<\/a> and found it had a role in Harris\u2019 loss. But he did not submit the findings to the DNC<\/a> for inclusion in the report. Axios did not include an explanation for that decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Prop<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Unpublished DNC Autopsy Chapter Criticized \u2018Self-Enriching\u2019 Party Operatives<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"David<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Forced Out of DNC for Criticizing Party Leaders, David Hogg Speaks Out: \u2018I Wasn\u2019t Wrong\u2019<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rivera confirmed Axios\u2019 reporting from back in February that the conclusions had been shared<\/a> with the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) Policy Project, a pro-Palestinian think tank, which told the DNC<\/a> that Harris\u2019 failure to break from Biden\u2019s policy on Israel\u2019s US-backed assault on Gaza<\/a> proved a liability with progressive voters, especially in Michigan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This news led to speculation that DNC chair Ken Martin, who had resisted<\/a> calls to release the autopsy in full, was doing so to avoid publicizing findings that portrayed Israel as an albatross around the party\u2019s neck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rivera\u00a0alleged<\/a>\u00a0earlier this week that Martin and top DNC brass withheld other portions of his report from public view, including a chapter criticizing the party\u2019s overreliance on \u201cself-enriching\u201d consultants and party operatives out of touch with voters. Rivera claims to have handed Martin a three-ring binder containing the report, but Martin denies that this occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X Post: https:\/\/x.com\/nick_field90\/status\/2085513550643052833?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2085513550643052833%7Ctwgr%5Ebb1415e2b4c6ff73295501ad00a90658d457442e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fdnc-autopsy-gaza<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rivera, who was fired from his advisory role at the DNC following widespread public backlash<\/a> to the release of the autopsy, has since published his own 564-page report<\/a> on the 2024 election, which includes several pages examining the role of Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of Election Day 2024, more than 43,000 Palestinians<\/a> had been killed<\/a>, including at least 13,300 identified children<\/a>, according to figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health, and protests<\/a> had swept the nation demanding that Biden cut off military aid to Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Rivera\u2019s report does not conclude that Gaza alone cost Harris the election, it found that it had a clear role in alienating voters who would have otherwise supported Harris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It found that in Michigan, one of the key swing states that handed victory to Trump, the losses in heavily Arab and Middle Eastern communities like West Bloomfield, Sterling Heights, Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, and Hamtramck, were significant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In these communities, Harris received 30,850 fewer votes in 2024 than Biden did in 2020, while Trump gained 14,874, a swing accounting for nearly 20% of the 234,291-vote shift that handed President Donald Trump<\/a> the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rivera noted that the Uncommitted Movement<\/a>, which garnered more than 700,000 votes nationally in the 2024 primary, originated in Dearborn, where Harris lost nearly a third of the support Biden had received in 2020. In nearby Hamtramck, her support tanked by 39% from Biden\u2019s in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, many of these voters did not flock to Trump, but to Green Party<\/a> candidate Jill Stein<\/a>, who received more than 12,000 votes across Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, and Hamtramck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe political analysis is simple,\u201d Rivera wrote. \u201cThe electoral results and voting shifts in Michigan and elsewhere demonstrate the impact the crisis had on the Harris campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He concluded that the issue could not simply be boiled down to \u201cmessaging\u201d but to concrete policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor many voters whose family members were displaced, subject to violence, or killed, the inability of the administration to effectively intervene was unacceptable,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIn 2024, absent a real end to military action and restoration of civilian control in Gaza, many voters in Michigan and elsewhere would not be satisfied.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked by Common Dreams to elaborate on why he did not provide these findings to the DNC, Rivera did not immediately respond to a request sent through his website\u2019s press contact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zeeshan Aleem, a political columnist at MSNOW was puzzled<\/a> by the decision by Rivera not to provide the Gaza findings to the DNC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is all strange in ways that either suggest dishonesty or stupidity,\u201d he said. \u201cThe author of the DNC report said he\u00a0did<\/em>\u00a0conclude that Gaza hurt Kamala, but didn\u2019t include that finding in the report he submitted to the DNC. Why?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X Post: https:\/\/x.com\/daveweigel\/status\/2085497982166655358?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2085497982166655358%7Ctwgr%5Ebb1415e2b4c6ff73295501ad00a90658d457442e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fdnc-autopsy-gaza<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opacity and conflicting narratives surrounding the autopsy\u2019s release continue to befuddle critics and onlookers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dave Weigel, a political reporter at Semafor, described<\/a> the idea that Gaza cost Harris votes as \u201ca water-is-wet finding guarded like the Ark of the Covenant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMartin could have just admitted that, yes, this issue that got Harris protested everywhere and helped Trump win Michigan hurt the campaign,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead, it became a secret that Holly pried loose and generated an extra year of negative stories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exclusion of Gaza from the official report released in May became ammunition<\/a> for some commentators seeking to downplay the idea that Democrats\u2019 support for Israel is an electoral liability or to accuse the IMEU Policy Project of spinning a false narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to the release of Rivera\u2019s report, media critic Adam Johnson mocked<\/a> those who framed it as a \u201cconspiracy theory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s so important to understand is that anyone denying Gaza harmed Harris\u2019 chances is a rank propagandist. Nobody believes this in good faith,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously it did. We can debate the degree of harm it had, but clearly it was significant and had many downstream deflating effects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Prager<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Prager is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, campaigning in Washington, DC, faces protests from hundreds of people expressing disapproval of her administration\u2019s Gaza policy on October 29, 2024. \u00a0(Photo by Celal Gunes\/Anadolu via Getty Images) \u201cThis is all strange in ways that either suggest dishonesty or stupidity,\u201d said one… Continue reading → <\/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":[2006],"tags":[2348],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49603"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49604,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49603\/revisions\/49604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}