Brown was still an idiot who couched most of his campaign in response to whatever Moreno said instead of actually articulating his own thoughts. He was even calling trans women "biological men", for god's sake. Not quite as much a cockup as Portman's campaign running exclusively on a platform of "China is evil!" but still deeply embarrassing.
The Democratic party leadership is still full of people who remember steak dinners in the 80s and 90s with the same people running the GOP and long for a return to those good old days. They do not care about governing, they just want to "get what they deserve". The lack of actual left-wing politics in the party - they're center-left at best - are embarrassing. They won't even run on marijuana legalization and amnesty. Biden's reclassification of the drug was a good step forward, yeah, but it's a ridiculous lack of attention paid to an issue very important to a lot of people.
Considering Harris' open disregard for the trans community in her campaign and continued support of an unpopular genocide it isn't exactly surprising people didn't turn out in droves for her! When you tell people you don't care about them, and actively alienate the people who go out and canvas for you (as is what happened with many of the people who were organizing pro-Palestinian protests, who then got arrested and insulted by the Biden admin), what do you expect?
But it's fine, they definitely gotta appeal to those republicans who voted for Clinton in the 90s,they're obviously the most important demographic out there.
(Also deeply amused by people complaining they "cared too much about identity politics". They didn't do a single damn thing for us, don't believe everything you hear on Alex Jones. Or anything.)