For the sake of this thread, let’s assume Trump will not destroy American democracy as we know it, and that free and fair elections will take place in 2028.
Anyway, the field seems to be wide open for the Democrats right now. Bernie Sanders is older than Biden, and I can’t see him making another run. Elizabeth Warren had a good showing in 2020, but she’ll be 79 in 2028, and I think Democratic voters are ready to move on from the boomers.
There’s a thread here about whether Kamala will make another run, but I don’t see many people clamoring to let her have a do-over.
There’s Pete Buttigieg, but, given his background as a McKinsey consultant, I can’t see him inspiring much excitement among working class and minority voters.
John Fetterman, with his recent overtures to Trump and stance on the war in Gaza, has turned off a lot of the progressive voters who were excited about him in 2022.
Tim Walz might be an interesting choice, if you let him be himself and go into attack mode.
So, who are some other people who might have a shot.
The problem with both Sanders and Warren isn’t so much age as the fact that they’re vulnerable to attacks of being “radical”. Of course Republicans will use that attack against any Democrat, but Sanders and Warren really are farther left than most others. They’re moderates by international standards, but not in rightward-leaning American politics.
Kamala has been tainted by the loss, just as Hillary was. It’s rare for anyone to get a do-over. Nixon managed it, but he was a determined survivor. Of course Trump managed it, too, but it was in a completely insane political climate.
I’ve always liked Gavin Newsom, but his tenure in California brings a lot of baggage that Republicans will exploit, rightly or wrongly.
I’d like to see Tammy Duckworth, the junior U.S. senator from Illinois, consider running. She’s a Thai American, Iraq War veteran, disabled (she lost both lower legs in combat), has a Ph.D., has served in both the House and Senate, as well as in the VA. And, she’ll only be 60 years old in 2028.
Shouldn’t they also be working on what they will want and need to do to sort out the consequences of the next four years? Though, granted, the immediate aftermath of a defeat isn’t the best time to decide anything fundamental.
Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I agree that Democrats apparently need to better figure out how to appeal to working class/minority voters.
I want it to be someone who has won at least one statewide election in a state that is at least purplish, and someone who doesn’t feel, for lack of a better word, insular – as in, having the sort of values and self-presentation that appeal to highly educated professionals who spend a lot of time thinking about politics, but nobody else. I don’t know a good way to define it, but I know it when I see it. Newsom is the epitome of insularity, and while I, personally, like Buttegieg just fine, he … acts and talks like the super-smart child of two academic parents. Which he is.
Walz would be OK. Sherrod Brown would be good, except there’s the slight problem that if he runs for Senate again in 2026 and doesn’t win he’s going to look like a less-plausible candidate for president, whereas if he does win he should probably stay right there. Roy Cooper, Jared Polis, and Andy Beshear all seem promising, although I don’t know a whole lot about how they come across in person.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is a possibility. He’s a popular governor in a state that’s blue on both sides and red in the middle, he’s young (51 right now) and he’s established some national cred as a campaigner. However, there’s that Jewish thing…
I like Buttigieg a lot, and I think Duckworth would be fantastic as well. Newsom is out, nobody from the progressive parts of the coasts should be in the running.
That said, another four years of MAGA is going to leave America pretty damaged and polarized by the culture wars. I deluded myself into thinking that the U.S. might actually pull the lever en masse for a woman of color (and, yes, millions did, but they were outgunned). A gay nominee, no matter how squeaky clean, non-caricature, wholesome as apple pie one, or a disabled woman of color…I know we want the Dems to lean in on being more of a genuinely left party, but that may still be a bridge too far for red or even purple states. It sucks, but the straight white guy Protestant NRA member route might turn out to be the only viable way to go. I wish the world wasn’t like that, FFS, but there we are.
My problem with Buttigieg is that he’s never successfully run for an office higher than mayor of the fourth largest city in Indiana.
For me, it’s all about the map. Barring some sort of fundamental political realignment brought on by the second Trump administration (which I don’t discount), the race will be won or lost in the same states it was this last time. That’s basically rust belt states (PA, WI, MI) with proportionately higher percentages of non-college-educated and white voters; booming western states (AZ, NV) with proportionately high percentages of Hispanics, and southeastern states (GA, NC) that have seemed to be – so, so slowly – inching away from the Solid South.
I’m not sure who in the Democratic camp can put together the coalition that gets to 270, but it’s likely a Midwestern governor who can speak to the anxieties of both those feeling left behind by the modern economy and culture as well as those who never had the chance to “get ahead” in the first place.
If Trump enacts mass deportations and huge tarriffs, the economy is likely to crater so I think the Dems will have an excellent shot with a lot of different people. Assuming the election isn’t ratfucked of course.
We’re obviously way out, but people that I think are reasonable and will make a run:
JB Pritzker
Gretchen Whitmer
Andy Bashear
Josh Shapiro
Raphael Warnock
Sherrod Brown
AOC is not remotely a loose cannon. She’s a team player, builds coalitions, is extremely smart, and has good instincts. I also think she’s too young, too hot, and too left.
I don’t think Harris will run, but she’s a reasonable choice too. If the country is a dumpster fire though, the “should have picked me” energy might be a winning move.
You can have all of those traits and still be a loose cannon on occasion, which she is at risk of being. All it takes is one outrageously anti-Semitic or other offensive, poorly thought out remark to tank a campaign.
Bolding mine. Sigh. Are we really dismissing female candidates because they are physically attractive? I’m not accusing you of being unwilling to vote for an attractive woman, but it does seem that you think the American electorate won’t vote for a woman if she’s “too hot.” I guess I should have lower expectations so that I’m never disappointed, but even after all we’ve been through I think more highly of voters than that.
…that both come across as hectoring. I’m kind of astonished that either has done as well as they have, because his Larry Sanders imitation and her schoolmarm delivery both are off-putting even though I like what they say. I hate this, but I recognize it in myself, and can only imagine how it hits anyone who is more skeptical of what they’re actually saying.
I agree that now is the time to start thinking about who is going to run for the Democrats in 2028. Whoever it is needs to establish a big, sweeping national presence starting now– and I mean national, not just either coast or the south or whatever. Presuming we’re still having elections in 2028, which is by no means a given.
And I hate to say it, but I believe it has to be a straight, white man.
Being realistic, I do not think a woman, a person of color, a non-Christian, or a gay person has a chance. This has to be someone that the whole country can unite behind.
In this last election we learned how insular, provincial, narrow-minded, and frankly stupid people can be. If we thought Kamala had an ice cube’s chance in Hell, we were kidding ourselves. Let’s don’t do that again. Let’s come up with someone that actually can win.
Yeah, yeah, I know trump didn’t win in a landslide, but he won, period. That’s what hurts. Idealism needs to take a back seat to practical reality.