How Bad Is It for Dems? Their Decision on Releasing Their 2024 Autopsy Report Says It All

As we reported, new polling brought some bad news for congressional Democrats.

They hit their lowest rating ever, with only 18 percent approval, 73 percent disapproval in a new Quinnipiac poll.

As CNN data guru Harry Enten explained, they were "-55 net approval, an all-time low & lower than the Dead Sea."

Cong Dems now have a -55 net approval, an all-time low & lower than the Dead Sea.

2 causes: Dems gives them a -6 pt net approval(!), & they're at -61 pts with indies!

The effect? Dems lead on the generic ballot is less than half of what it was at this pt in the 06 & 18 cycles. pic.twitter.com/Os17D7BkHR
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) December 18, 2025

What was worse for them was that even amongst their own party, they were underwater, with only 42 percent approving and 48 percent disapproving. Their party approval had taken a nosedive since October, after they failed in the government shutdown fight.

Despite that, they were ahead on the generic ballot by about four points. But as Enten noted, this should be much higher normally for the midterms, where the party out of power usually has the advantage. It showed how weak they were.

Now, on Friday, two new polls, Emerson and Quantus Insights, show Democrats only up by two points in the generic ballot, which is even better than the numbers Enten had mentioned. Quantus has it at 43 to 41 percent, and Emerson has it at 44 to 42 percent.

Then, on top of that, the DNC's Ken Martin announced that they wouldn't be releasing the autopsy report on why they lost in 2024.

Ken Martin, the chairman of the D.N.C., said on Thursday that he had decided not to publish a report that he ordered months ago into what went wrong for the Democratic Party last year. Party officials have conducted more than 300 interviews with Democrats in all 50 states to create a document that Mr. Martin had once pitched as crucial to charting a path forward.
Mr. Martin will instead keep the findings under seal. He believes that looking back so publicly and painfully at the past would prove counterproductive for the party as it tries next year to take back power in Congress, according to a D.N.C. spokeswoman who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share the thinking behind his decision.
“Here’s our North Star: Does this help us win?” Mr. Martin said in a statement. “If the answer is no, it’s a distraction from the core mission.”

Translation? The report shows how bad their issues are; it will hurt and embarrass them. So, like typical Democrats, they just wasted all that time and money because they don't like the reality of what they were told.

They haven't answered the question, for example, of how Kamala Harris' team threw $1.5 billion down the sewer and didn't even manage to win one swing state.

Simon Bazelon, a Democratic researcher, noted how this decision doesn't help them solve their issues and was "reflective of a broader problem within the party." You can say that again. This is "hide your head in the sand" behavior.

They appear to want to return to their strategy of 2024, just yelling about President Donald Trump.

Republicans have a real chance here; they need to focus on the economy. They need to remind everyone what a mess things were under the Democrats, going up to 9 percent on inflation, and what they are doing to make things better, as Trump did during his economic address on Wednesday.

Thursday's inflation number was good, at 2.7 percent. Gas is down, wages are up, and more good things are on the horizon. Keep focusing on making things better and getting that message out there.

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