DNC’s 2024 Autopsy: ‘We Ignored Voters, Crashed Economy, Botched Border’ – CA Dems Double Down on the Corpse

The Democratic National Committee has published its long-awaited postmortem on the 2024 presidential election disaster, confirming what millions of Americans already knew: the party lost touch with everyday voters on the economy, immigration, and cultural issues. 

The report (see below), commissioned by the DNC and released amid internal pressure, explicitly cites “a persistent inability or unwillingness to listen to all voters” as a key factor in Kamala Harris’s defeat. It acknowledges that Democrats “have lost the confidence we once received from everyday Americans,” particularly on the economy, which the party now admits was in bad shape under Biden-Harris. The autopsy also highlights immigration failures, including Harris’s role as “border czar,” and notes the political damage from her past support for extreme positions. 

One flashpoint mentioned in related campaign analysis was Harris’s 2019 pledge supporting taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries, including for those in immigration detention. She stated she would ensure access to “comprehensive treatment associated with gender transition, including all necessary surgical care” for federal prisoners and detainees. 

Despite this clear repudiation of the Biden-Harris agenda, two Democratic candidates in California’s competitive 22nd Congressional District are showing no signs of learning from the defeat. Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains and progressive challenger Randy Villegas are both advancing the same policies that contributed to the national rout. 

Bains, a physician and establishment favorite, reportedly backed legislation providing taxpayer-funded gender transition procedures for illegal immigrants while in the state Assembly. Villegas, a community college professor running on a far-left platform, has championed Biden-era open border approaches, opposed deportations of criminal illegal immigrants, and is campaigning in part on policies critics say undermine law enforcement. 

Both candidates opposed the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, which delivered relief by cutting taxes on overtime pay, Social Security benefits, and tips for working Americans.

RNC Spokesman Nick Poche sharply criticized the California Democrats’ refusal to adapt:  

“Democrats are refusing to learn the lessons of 2024 and are doubling down on every unpopular idea that led to rampant inflation, spiking energy costs, and dangerous criminals flooding the country. Jasmeet Bains and Randy Villegas are still all-in on amnesty for criminal illegal immigrants, taxpayer-funded transgender surgery, and defunding law enforcement because they are a vessel for the radical left, not Californians.”  

The DNC report underscores broader problems, including failure to connect with working-class voters, Latinos, men, and rural Americans who rejected the party’s priorities in 2024. Yet in California’s Central Valley, where cost of living, crime, and border security remain top concerns, local Democrats appear determined to ignore the warning signs. 

Voters in the June 2 primary for CA-22 will have a clear choice between continuing the failed status quo or demanding change. As the DNC’s own autopsy makes plain, the path Bains and Villegas are on has already been rejected at the ballot box once. Californians may deliver the same verdict again.