The report may never see the light of day—so the Harris campaign’s head of digital offers his candid breakdown of what worked, what failed, and what Democrats have yet to learn.
SAVE THE DATE! This Sunday, May 17: Join Bill Kristol and Rob Flaherty for Bulwark on Sunday where they will discuss this article and a path forward for democrats.
Tune in however you watch The Bulwark, whether it's YouTube or Substack. Links to come.
We are enjoying reading your feedback. Keep it coming!
Looks like Sunday 17 May here. But I still expect to find this sometime today. I saw a page that said "9:00 AM", but I'm not sure in what time zone. It's now 9:33 AM Pacific Time, so it ought to be here by now.
Wow. You still don’t get it. First a rich woman from California who acted bored could not win anything. Second. No one stopped to listen, not the candidate, the staff, the dnc, no one.
I greatly appreciate Rob Flaherty for writing this - and the Bulwark for publishing it - as well as his chat with Bill Kristol. Rob has some important perspecrtives and ideas for moving forward that Democrats everywhere will benefit from understanding.
Even more illuminating is the assumptions inherent in his reflections about the campaign. It makes complete sense that he'd have these assumptions, because it was the job of the candidate and the lead strategiest to define those assumptions; that's what strategy is all about.
Kamala's choice - and it was her choice - to put no daylight between platform and the Biden administration did her in. Telling The View audience she would not have done anything differently than Biden was devestating to her campaign. But then learning she was surprised by the reaction to her answer tells me she is just not cut out for the job. She as poor political instincts.
Paradoxically, her fatal flaw as a candidate- then and now - is that she has a strong desire to be flawless. So she waits. She studies. She looks at the data. She constructs a respons. She rehearses. And then she ends up being somone who sounds inauthentic, hard to get to know, and who repeats certain statements, catch phrases, and slogans. When she ad libs it comes out in some incoherent word salad. It might work for the K-hive, but it's not going to win a Presdiential Election.
Personally I think she did win and EM changed the results using fake votes from nonexistent precincts. I do not understand why no state demanded a recount.
Trump's biggest failing is that he hasn't come close to delivering on his promises. What I find refreshing about Mamdani is not his embrace of socialism, but his efforts to see his promises actually happen.
Though Trump's base hasn't fully dropped him, his approval numbers show there are a lot of low information voters that are pissed he isn't even trying to deliver on what he promised. His base will quickly move from America first to Saudi Arabia first regardless of what he does.
But, there area lot of voters that voted for Trump based on his promises, and their belief he could deliver on it. As for Democrats, voters see our leaders as quickly abandoning their own promises, in order to act like Republicans (bc they think that's safer), rather than making an effort to see what they ran on passed. The healthcare debate has been quite instructive on that point.
It means you have to have candidates who understand digital and understand this changed communication environment -- young or old... Dems need to enlist former republican strategists as well
I found it interesting that his discussion about how people get information and exist online came toward the end. To me that feels like the structural problem that must be named explicitly, and addressed through better comms strategy.
A lot here…here’s hoping dem candidates going forward will read it and incorporate it into their campaign. I think one of the most important things for future candidates is to generate a ‘why I want to win’ statement. If there is no why, there is no underlying purpose or message and no chance of winning. I watched Bill’s live Sunday show and read the article but would like to see Bulwark continue to have Rob as a guest on podcasts, particularly to explain the where to go from here component of the articles. Much appreciation to Rob for the in-depth dive into 2024 that we are unlikely to get from Ken Martin and the DNC.
I think we need to welcome former Republican strategists to work integrally on the whole 2028 Democratic campaign. We just don't have the fire power for this new era.
Climate change will define the 2028 election. AI will be important, but secondary, and possibly just a further problem with climate change.
The Republican Party was truly stupid to run against climate change and label it a hoax. Climate change is vastly bigger than political parties. It will continue to get worse, and it will continue to hurt the Republican Party.
Allying with the fossil fuel industry was a huge strategic mistake for the Republicans, not just because changes in climate will continue and worsen, but because renewable energy is getting cheaper and the oil industry (in particular) sponsors wars.
There would be no wars in the Middle East if it didn’t have vast supplies of oil. No one can afford to wage a war on the income from date palms. There would be no war in Ukraine if Russia didn’t have funds from oil and natural gas. Our subsidies and support for fossil fuels enflame those wars.
And solar power is now the cheaper way to generate electricity. The Republicans are asking the public to pay more for energy to help their cronies in the fossil fuel industry. It’s a political loser.
The Democratic Party needs to get on board now and attack Republicans for their support of fossil fuels. This is a huge sleeper issue waiting for Democrats to exploit.
We have a vision, Rob. People over money. That's what it means to be a Democrat.
If you get paid out of equity, your check is stamped "Republican". If you get a paycheck for your work, your check is stamped "Democrat". It's not complex.
Bill, it’s not just that the voters “have their views”. It is objectively hard to live in the 21st century.
Right now, the typical living wage in the U.S. (according to data from the MIT Living Wage Calculator) is about $38/hour, which equates to $83,000 a year. That’s close to the median wage. Literally half of the people in the U.S. are just making a living, if that.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour, just under $16,000 a year.
That’s why every chance they get voters throw the bums out. They essentially threw Kamala Harris out of office in 2024. Just as we should expect because it took more hours to make a living in 2024 than in 2019.
Voters will throw the Republicans out of office in the next couple elections. Great! We’ll be rid of Criminal Trump and his band of bandits.
Then what?
Democrats must solve the affordability problem or they will be tossed out in turn.
Realistically, the only way to stop the constant climb in the cost of living, even temporarily, is to revamp the healthcare system. We waste (by my calculations) hundreds of billions of dollars a year by supporting private health insurance. That money could be going into people’s pockets to use for everything they need to live: food, clothing, housing, transportation, and everything else.
One of the major parties needs to get with the program. Unless politicians enjoy losing races and being tossed on the dustbin of history.
Super delegates are a pox on the party. They must be eliminated. I’m fine with them getting seats at the convention. But they should be required to stay out of the selection of the nominee, and that should include all voting for that nominee at the convention.
Super delegates are one reason Bernie Sanders didn’t get a fair chance at the nomination. From the very start he had to get about a thousand delegates ahead of any challenger to even be in the running. That’s a totally unfair disadvantage for challengers.
And the Democratic Party desperately needs challengers. It’s grown to be a kid brother to the Republican Party. People look at the party as Tweedledum. It puts the party at a disadvantage because it suggests voters might as well go ahead and vote for the bad guys. It’s a giant permission structure for them to vote for Republicans. We need to eliminate triangulation. Triangulation is killing us.
When the voters are stamping in the yard demanding change. When they are assembling with their pitchforks. They need to see a clear difference. Our message can’t be, “We’ll give you more of the same.”
As for Biden not running, he should have resigned office in 2023 and turned the White House over to Kamala Harris. That would have been the grand-statesman gesture, and it would have destroyed Criminal Trump's chances of winning in 2024. Harris would have shown she was totally competent to be President and she would have had all the powers of incumbency to use against the Republicans.
If we want to revisit Joe Biden's decision, I think this is where we need to end up.
That resignation would have made Joe Biden a legend for all time: sacrificing himself for the good of the country.
SAVE THE DATE! This Sunday, May 17: Join Bill Kristol and Rob Flaherty for Bulwark on Sunday where they will discuss this article and a path forward for democrats.
Tune in however you watch The Bulwark, whether it's YouTube or Substack. Links to come.
We are enjoying reading your feedback. Keep it coming!
Hi all! If you missed the live show with Bill and Rob on Sunday, you can catch the replay here: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-real-reason-kamala-harris-lost?r=9qmvz&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Did the interview not happen? It is now Monday, and it does not exist anywhere on the website.
I think you can find it on the main website (https://open.substack.com/live-stream/204900) in the LIVE link at the top.
Yes, that will show you the latest stream. Direct link for the Bill and Rob show is here: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-real-reason-kamala-harris-lost?r=9qmvz&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Looks like Sunday 17 May here. But I still expect to find this sometime today. I saw a page that said "9:00 AM", but I'm not sure in what time zone. It's now 9:33 AM Pacific Time, so it ought to be here by now.
I see this is at "9:00 AM", but in what time zone? Does that mean 6:00 AM my time on the West Coast?
What time will this post?
Wow. You still don’t get it. First a rich woman from California who acted bored could not win anything. Second. No one stopped to listen, not the candidate, the staff, the dnc, no one.
I greatly appreciate Rob Flaherty for writing this - and the Bulwark for publishing it - as well as his chat with Bill Kristol. Rob has some important perspecrtives and ideas for moving forward that Democrats everywhere will benefit from understanding.
Even more illuminating is the assumptions inherent in his reflections about the campaign. It makes complete sense that he'd have these assumptions, because it was the job of the candidate and the lead strategiest to define those assumptions; that's what strategy is all about.
Kamala's choice - and it was her choice - to put no daylight between platform and the Biden administration did her in. Telling The View audience she would not have done anything differently than Biden was devestating to her campaign. But then learning she was surprised by the reaction to her answer tells me she is just not cut out for the job. She as poor political instincts.
Paradoxically, her fatal flaw as a candidate- then and now - is that she has a strong desire to be flawless. So she waits. She studies. She looks at the data. She constructs a respons. She rehearses. And then she ends up being somone who sounds inauthentic, hard to get to know, and who repeats certain statements, catch phrases, and slogans. When she ad libs it comes out in some incoherent word salad. It might work for the K-hive, but it's not going to win a Presdiential Election.
According to cbastian on Daily Kos, the autopsy report has been published:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/5/21/800042394/community/breaking-dnc-finally-releases-the-2024-election-autopsy-report/
Personally I think she did win and EM changed the results using fake votes from nonexistent precincts. I do not understand why no state demanded a recount.
Trump's biggest failing is that he hasn't come close to delivering on his promises. What I find refreshing about Mamdani is not his embrace of socialism, but his efforts to see his promises actually happen.
Though Trump's base hasn't fully dropped him, his approval numbers show there are a lot of low information voters that are pissed he isn't even trying to deliver on what he promised. His base will quickly move from America first to Saudi Arabia first regardless of what he does.
But, there area lot of voters that voted for Trump based on his promises, and their belief he could deliver on it. As for Democrats, voters see our leaders as quickly abandoning their own promises, in order to act like Republicans (bc they think that's safer), rather than making an effort to see what they ran on passed. The healthcare debate has been quite instructive on that point.
It means you have to have candidates who understand digital and understand this changed communication environment -- young or old... Dems need to enlist former republican strategists as well
I found it interesting that his discussion about how people get information and exist online came toward the end. To me that feels like the structural problem that must be named explicitly, and addressed through better comms strategy.
A lot here…here’s hoping dem candidates going forward will read it and incorporate it into their campaign. I think one of the most important things for future candidates is to generate a ‘why I want to win’ statement. If there is no why, there is no underlying purpose or message and no chance of winning. I watched Bill’s live Sunday show and read the article but would like to see Bulwark continue to have Rob as a guest on podcasts, particularly to explain the where to go from here component of the articles. Much appreciation to Rob for the in-depth dive into 2024 that we are unlikely to get from Ken Martin and the DNC.
I think we need to welcome former Republican strategists to work integrally on the whole 2028 Democratic campaign. We just don't have the fire power for this new era.
AI and the Future
Climate change will define the 2028 election. AI will be important, but secondary, and possibly just a further problem with climate change.
The Republican Party was truly stupid to run against climate change and label it a hoax. Climate change is vastly bigger than political parties. It will continue to get worse, and it will continue to hurt the Republican Party.
Allying with the fossil fuel industry was a huge strategic mistake for the Republicans, not just because changes in climate will continue and worsen, but because renewable energy is getting cheaper and the oil industry (in particular) sponsors wars.
There would be no wars in the Middle East if it didn’t have vast supplies of oil. No one can afford to wage a war on the income from date palms. There would be no war in Ukraine if Russia didn’t have funds from oil and natural gas. Our subsidies and support for fossil fuels enflame those wars.
And solar power is now the cheaper way to generate electricity. The Republicans are asking the public to pay more for energy to help their cronies in the fossil fuel industry. It’s a political loser.
The Democratic Party needs to get on board now and attack Republicans for their support of fossil fuels. This is a huge sleeper issue waiting for Democrats to exploit.
We have a vision, Rob. People over money. That's what it means to be a Democrat.
If you get paid out of equity, your check is stamped "Republican". If you get a paycheck for your work, your check is stamped "Democrat". It's not complex.
Why has the DNC not released the report?
Affordability
Bill, it’s not just that the voters “have their views”. It is objectively hard to live in the 21st century.
Right now, the typical living wage in the U.S. (according to data from the MIT Living Wage Calculator) is about $38/hour, which equates to $83,000 a year. That’s close to the median wage. Literally half of the people in the U.S. are just making a living, if that.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour, just under $16,000 a year.
That’s why every chance they get voters throw the bums out. They essentially threw Kamala Harris out of office in 2024. Just as we should expect because it took more hours to make a living in 2024 than in 2019.
Voters will throw the Republicans out of office in the next couple elections. Great! We’ll be rid of Criminal Trump and his band of bandits.
Then what?
Democrats must solve the affordability problem or they will be tossed out in turn.
Realistically, the only way to stop the constant climb in the cost of living, even temporarily, is to revamp the healthcare system. We waste (by my calculations) hundreds of billions of dollars a year by supporting private health insurance. That money could be going into people’s pockets to use for everything they need to live: food, clothing, housing, transportation, and everything else.
One of the major parties needs to get with the program. Unless politicians enjoy losing races and being tossed on the dustbin of history.
Super Delegates
Super delegates are a pox on the party. They must be eliminated. I’m fine with them getting seats at the convention. But they should be required to stay out of the selection of the nominee, and that should include all voting for that nominee at the convention.
Super delegates are one reason Bernie Sanders didn’t get a fair chance at the nomination. From the very start he had to get about a thousand delegates ahead of any challenger to even be in the running. That’s a totally unfair disadvantage for challengers.
And the Democratic Party desperately needs challengers. It’s grown to be a kid brother to the Republican Party. People look at the party as Tweedledum. It puts the party at a disadvantage because it suggests voters might as well go ahead and vote for the bad guys. It’s a giant permission structure for them to vote for Republicans. We need to eliminate triangulation. Triangulation is killing us.
When the voters are stamping in the yard demanding change. When they are assembling with their pitchforks. They need to see a clear difference. Our message can’t be, “We’ll give you more of the same.”
How is that going to get their votes?
As for Biden not running, he should have resigned office in 2023 and turned the White House over to Kamala Harris. That would have been the grand-statesman gesture, and it would have destroyed Criminal Trump's chances of winning in 2024. Harris would have shown she was totally competent to be President and she would have had all the powers of incumbency to use against the Republicans.
If we want to revisit Joe Biden's decision, I think this is where we need to end up.
That resignation would have made Joe Biden a legend for all time: sacrificing himself for the good of the country.