DNC autopsy – Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Ro Khanna accused the Democratic National Committee’s newly released 2024 election autopsy of ignoring Gaza, arguing the omission is a major oversight in a race shaped by the war. Both warned the issue is likely to remain
For Rep. Ro Khanna, it wasn’t a disagreement about policy — it was a gap on the page.
On Thursday, standing outside the Capitol, Khanna told reporters he was stunned that the Democratic National Committee’s recently released autopsy report of the 2024 election appeared to omit Gaza entirely.
“Did you notice that it doesn’t mention the word Gaza?” Khanna said. “I mean. you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know Gaza was one of the big issues in the 2024 election. So first, I skimmed it, the 192 pages; I didn’t see Gaza. Then I put it into ChatGPT, I said, ‘Did I miss something?. Is Gaza mentioned?’ No Gaza.”.
Khanna said the party needs to confront “hard truths.” One of them. he argued. is that “Israel committed a genocide. ” that Israel is an “apartheid state. ” and that “we should not have given a single dollar to Israel to commit that genocide.” He added that Gaza will likely remain a concern in the upcoming midterms and the 2028 presidential election.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made the same point in sharper terms, calling it “pretty unbelievable” that Gaza was not addressed in the report.
“I think it’s pretty unbelievable that Gaza would not be mentioned once in the autopsy report. I think it was very clearly a major dynamic and a major thread that was happening in 2024. ” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters on Thursday. “Regardless of how one feels about that issue. The fact that it’s not even addressed, I think, is a major oversight.”.
The timing of the backlash underscores how quickly the Gaza question has become a fault line inside the Democratic coalition — one that leaders have struggled to contain since the 2024 campaign season.
The DNC’s autopsy, released after mounting pressure on DNC Chair Ken Martin to make it public, was intended to examine the Democratic Party’s failings in the 2024 election and chart a route forward. Martin said he tried to avoid creating additional turbulence when he released the document.
“I didn’t want to create a distraction,” Martin wrote on Substack after the report was released on Thursday. “Ironically, in doing so, I ended up creating an even bigger distraction. And for that, I sincerely apologize.”
For Khanna and Ocasio-Cortez, the distraction is rooted in a central political reality: Gaza did not just sit at the margins of the 2024 race — it became a wedge issue.
During the election, many left-leaning voters refused to support then-Vice President Kamala Harris due to her continued support for Israel. Harris. while accepting the Democratic presidential nomination. said she will “always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself. and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself.”.
Their criticism also comes as polling has suggested broad discomfort among Democrats over the direction of U.S. and allied policy toward the conflict. A recent poll from The New York Times/Siena found that 60% of Democratic voters were more sympathetic to the Palestinians than to Israel.
In the space between the autopsy’s stated goal — diagnosing what went wrong in 2024 — and what the lawmakers say is missing — Gaza itself — their argument lands with a kind of urgency. They are not asking for debate over tone; they are insisting the subject was a central driver of voter behavior. and that omitting it from the analysis makes it harder for the party to learn.
The lawmakers’ message was clear even as they differ in emphasis: for Khanna and Ocasio-Cortez, the report’s silence is not neutral. It is evidence of a blind spot they believe will return, and likely intensify, as Democrats head toward the midterms and beyond.
Both said the war in Gaza will remain intertwined with Democratic electoral prospects — and that the party will face a choice about whether it treats the issue as a footnote or a decisive factor in how it persuades voters.
DNC autopsy 2024 election Gaza Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Ro Khanna Ken Martin Kamala Harris Israel apartheid Israel genocide Democratic Party midterms 2028 election