Report: Democrats’ internal review finds Harris lost votes in 2024 over Gaza stance

An internal investigation within the US Democratic Party has found that former US vice president Kamala Harris’s stance on Gaza and Israel’s war against Hamas cost her votes in the 2024 election, the Axios news outlet reported Sunday.

According to Axios, this information was uncovered by the Democratic National Committee amid its probe into the errors and pitfalls that led to Harris losing against US President Donald Trump. The DNC said last year it would not make its findings public.

Nevertheless, Axios said members of the DNC informed pro-Palestinian activists from the IMEU Policy Project that their data showed Harris’s stance on Israel and Gaza — which was in line with the policies of former US president Joe Biden — was overall a “net negative” in the election.

On the other hand, the report said IMEU activists stated to the DNC that the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel cost support from among progressives and some young voters.

The DNC confirmed to Axios that it did indeed speak to the IMEU Policy Project but declined to provide details on the meeting.

According to the outlet, the IMEU Policy Project now believes that part of the reason the DNC is refusing to publish the election defeat report is because of the Israel-related content, a claim that DNC spokesperson Kendall Witmer denied. The DNC said last year it was not publishing the report because it did not want to distract from midterm election campaigns.

Asked by the outlet for comment, a Harris spokesperson referred to comments she made at an event during a recent tour to promote her memoir, “107 Days.”

“We should have done more as an administration” to voice public criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his management of the war, Harris said.

Axios said it had “independently verified” that the DNC believes Harris’s policies on Israel and Gaza did alienate some voters. DNC officials have said they are using information from the audit to advise candidates and campaigns, it reported.

In her book, Harris blamed Biden for her election loss, saying the president became unpopular in part because of the “perceived blank check” he gave Netanyahu to respond to the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, and that she had a difference of opinion with Biden on the administration’s stance regarding criticism of Israel.

Biden expressed strong support for Israel soon after the October 7 onslaught, taking the rare step of flying to the country during wartime.

Later, he sometimes criticized Netanyahu in public, notably over the premier’s plan, realized in May last year, to invade Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had fled from the Strip’s north.

In private, Biden was said to have used harsher language to express his displeasure with Netanyahu.

Netanyahu, for his part, publicly criticized Biden for having withheld some high-payload weapons from Israel.