# Frontrunners for Democratic presidential nomination in 2028 **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 16, 2025, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036 "2025-01-16T06:50:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 73
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1441 "2026-02-16T17:47:16Z")
This disagreement is really just a math problem in which no one has the “true” numbers – I’m very progressive, and I would reluctantly support Newsom or any other Democratic governor/senator (even Fetterman, as much of a disgusting piece of shit as he is) over JD Vance or any other current Republican office-holder. But suppose that I’m as progressive as it’s possible to get and be still willing to support these sorts of Democrats… everyone more progressive than me would not. For them, suppose it’s AOC, or AOC-like politics, or third party. Then suppose there are moderates/conservatives who hate Trump and would be willing to vote for Newsom/Fetterman, but not AOC. Which group is bigger? We don’t know. We can’t know. Even with good polling data (of which we don’t have for this question – certainly this long before the next election), we can’t know for sure. I think the progressive group is probably bigger. But this is just a guess at this point, as is anyone else’s opinion. And, of course, this doesn’t even take into account things like charisma and political skill, in which a candidate can convince groups that might not initially support them to do so through campaigning. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1442 "2026-02-16T17:53:05Z")
“Illiberal”, “liberal”, “shitlib”, etc., is entirely meaningless to me. Same goes for lobbing social media insults at politicians that I think suck, like Newsom and most others in the “traditional” Democratic party leadership. I truly couldn’t care less about stuff like that. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1443 "2026-02-16T17:53:56Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > This disagreement is really just a math problem in which no one has the “true” numbers No, it’s also a disagreement about what the Democratic Party should be. I don’t think the Democratic Party should appeal to illiberal people whether it’s electorally beneficial or not. If we could beat Trump by appealing to Nick Fuentes voters, I don’t think that we should do it. If the only way the Democratic party can beat the Republicans is by abandoning Liberalism, then the American experiment is over and it’s time to leave before Weimar falls completely. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1444 "2026-02-16T17:54:52Z")
This is meaningless blather to me. Who cares about team-names like “liberals” or “illiberals”? I could ask a hundred people and get a hundred definitions of each term. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1445 "2026-02-16T17:55:53Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > “Illiberal”, “liberal”, “shitlib”, etc., is entirely meaningless to me. Well, to me and many others, liberalism isn’t completely meaningless, it in fact means _everything_; and support for liberalism is the entire reason why we support the Democratic Party - because they are the party that upholds liberal values. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1446 "2026-02-16T17:57:32Z")
Your “liberal values” could be anything at all. It’s just a vague team name to me (and I’m guess to millions, maybe tens of millions, of young potentially-Democratic voters). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1447 "2026-02-16T17:58:39Z")
To be clear, I do think that there are a nonzero number of voters who identify as Democrats, usually vote for Democrats, but who would vote for Vance or a third-party candidate over Newsom. I just don’t think there’s a significant number of them. I think that what most “swing voters” are, is politically disengaged. They don’t particularly align with a party, and they don’t really care about enough issues to hold political positions on them. If we can get them, we can win, and if we can’t get them, we lose. But if we lose, it’s not because “the Democratic Party has too much infighting”. > [@Babale](#): > > No, it’s also a disagreement about what the Democratic Party should be. I don’t think the Democratic Party should appeal to illiberal people whether it’s electorally beneficial or not. If we could beat Trump by appealing to Nick Fuentes voters, I don’t think that we should do it. Sure, but there’s a big difference between Nick Fuentes and Gavin Newsom. If Newsom is the nominee, then, like most folks here, I’ll hold my nose and vote for him. If Fuentes were the nominee, then no matter how the election goes, we’ve already lost. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1448 "2026-02-16T18:00:36Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Sure, but there’s a big difference between Nick Fuentes and Gavin Newsom. If Newsom is the nominee, then, like most folks here, I’ll hold my nose and vote for him. If Fuentes were the nominee, then no matter how the election goes, we’ve already lost. Right, but if you said “your favored nominee doesn’t appeal to Fuentes fans” I wouldn’t say “oh no, I better figure out how to appeal to them!”. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1449 "2026-02-16T18:00:40Z")
Moderating: > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > This is meaningless blather to me. Who cares about team-names like “liberals” or “illiberals”? I could ask a hundred people and get a hundred definitions of each term. > [@Babale](#): > > Well, to me and many others, liberalism isn’t completely meaningless, it in fact means _everything_; and support for liberalism is the entire reason why we support the Democratic Party - because they are the party that upholds liberal values. I realize that the discussion about who will be a frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028 does require an element of discussion about who will be voting and why, but this hijack has gotten out of hand. If you want to have an extended discussion about liberalism, its meaning and how it may or may not translate into support of the Democratic party, please start a new thread. This one is dedicated to discussion of persons who currently identify as Democrats who may be good choices to be the Democrats’ nominee in 2028. If you can tie up your discussion to particular candidates as @Chronos has, that’s fine. A more general discussion belongs elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1450 "2026-02-16T18:02:51Z")
I bet (hypothetically) AOC gets most of the Piker followers, and an endorsement from him. I bet Newsom doesn’t. If that’s millions of potential voters, then that’s an obvious big advantage for AOC. If AOC is like Fuentes to you, then I don’t see how we can even be from the same planet, much less the same party - IMO AOC is about as far from Fuentes as anyone could possibly be. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1451 "2026-02-16T18:23:30Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > If AOC is like Fuentes to you, then I don’t see how we can even be from the same planet, much less the same party - IMO AOC is about as far from Fuentes as anyone could possibly be. AOC is nothing like Fuentes, but Hasan is his mirror image. I will hold my nose and vote for AOC over JD Vance if it comes down to it, but I don’t consider the fact that Hasan supporters are more likely to vote for her to be a point in her favor; if anything, that’s part of my hesitation about her, the same way that I would consider it to be a red flag if a bunch of white nationalists were gung ho for Newsom. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1452 "2026-02-16T19:44:21Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > This just seems like revisionist history. What was “radical” about Mondale or Dukakis? They were just liberals in a time when liberalism was out of fashion. McGovern was actually “radical” insofar as he took an unpopular, but absolutely correct, stance against the Vietnam War; I’ll count that as a legitimate case of “better for the Party to lose an election than to lose its soul” They most certainly were NOT “centrist Democrats”. Maybe Mondale or Dukakis were just very liberal, not radical, I will accept that. But not centrist. > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > WHOEVER gets the nomination, I just hope Democrats (leadership AND voters) can rally behind him or her and not straggle off in the name of some lame principle or other. Yep, and when it is clear that your fave candidate has lost in the primaries- switch to the new one. Dont keep pumping out negative stuff all the way to the general election. In fact the Dems should not post any negative stuff about the others- say how grat you candidate is. > [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > You think a Democratic President will give up the power of Trump’s unitary executive? Biden did. > [@Babale](#): > > What about those “progressives” who say they’ll vote Third Party if the wrong kind of Democrat is nominated? (And who did so in 2020 and 2024?) Are they lying, or were they always Republicans? They cost us two elections, both got us trump. I hope they are happy. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1453 "2026-02-16T20:02:58Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Biden did. Yeah? How’d that work out for him? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1454 "2026-02-16T20:07:18Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > How’d that work out for him? Biden thought the rule of law was important, and so do I. If you have a Dem that ignores the Constitution, and runs the nation by executive order, you might as well vote in a Republican. I hope the next President thinks so also, trump was an aberration. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1455 "2026-02-16T20:12:16Z")
So long as half the country believes the law does not bind them, and the Constitution protects only them, it will be Trumps all the way down. We dismiss Trump as an aberration at our peril. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1456 "2026-02-17T02:41:23Z")
AOC has been brought up, although I’m not sure if she’s planning a run in 2028. If she is, she’d better brush up on her foreign policy first; she was in Munich to show off her foreign policy chops, but it was a bit of a fumble, with her flubbing a question about Taiwan: [https://www.wsj.com/opinion/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-taiwan-china-munich-security-conference-4c907430?gaa\_at=eafs&gaa\_n=AWEtsqf28ntH51Vc0y5Fl6tW2vAQjBWPeUPejY8TnM0rTLRA4oF2Ue6fSPsIvAq3ISk%3D&gaa\_ts=6993d590&gaa\_sig=SofZiC6sEvknm2ctQRj3XSvXgXXk-9rjORnqUusBgCPCWwLE7aPBxlXHUYl8n-\_01poInEiu-fs4TzVIAjTDlg%3D%3D](https://www.wsj.com/opinion/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-taiwan-china-munich-security-conference-4c907430?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqf28ntH51Vc0y5Fl6tW2vAQjBWPeUPejY8TnM0rTLRA4oF2Ue6fSPsIvAq3ISk%3D&gaa_ts=6993d590&gaa_sig=SofZiC6sEvknm2ctQRj3XSvXgXXk-9rjORnqUusBgCPCWwLE7aPBxlXHUYl8n-_01poInEiu-fs4TzVIAjTDlg%3D%3D) ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1457 "2026-02-17T10:33:01Z")
What was the flub? Didn’t she reiterate official, longstanding US policy on Taiwan? No surprise that conservative media sources are already trying to (baselessly) torpedo AOC (oh my God, she said “um”!)… mild surprise that a Democratic doper would be giving them an assist. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1458 "2026-02-17T14:15:42Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > What was the flub? Didn’t she reiterate official, longstanding US policy on Taiwan? No, that’s precisely the problem. Her answer certainly doest reflect an awareness of the Taiwan Relations Act or of the complex situation in Taiwan, it was incredibly generic. You could say, “we really hope we never get to that point and our using our economic position to try and avoid that” about literally any two countries on the planet. AOC is a relatively fresh politician and foreign policy is one area in particular is an area she has zero experience in. If she wants to be taken seriously as a candidate that’s one of the things she needs to show that she can do, and a generic answer that d emonstrates zero awareness of what Taiwan is and what their history with China is is pretty lackluster. Certainly far more of a red flag than Gavin Newsom saying something that 80% of Democrats agree with, an event this thread spent many posts arguing about. AOC is a very smart person, I’m sure that she _does_ know about Taiwan; but she utterly failed to communicate any of that knowledge in her answer. > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > No surprise that conservative media sources are already trying to (baselessly) torpedo AOC (oh my God, she said “um”!) That’s not, of course, the criticism of AOC being cited. Ignore the "um"s and she still basically said “We want to avoid war and will use economic leverage to do it”. > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > mild surprise that a Democratic doper would be giving them an assist. If criticism of a Democratic hopeful is assisting conservatives, there’s quite a few posts about Newsom you might want to read upthread. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1459 "2026-02-17T14:22:58Z")
So your criticism is “she gave a generic answer”? Wow. What a blow! I’m sure Newsom has never done anything as awful as giving a generic answer to a question! It is interesting to see the development and deployment of corporate media anti-progressive talking points in real time. We’ll see if this is the best they got for AOC. Seems pretty pathetic to me. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1460 "2026-02-17T14:33:45Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > So your criticism is “she gave a generic answer”? My criticism is “I don’t know if AOC has the foreign policy experience to be president. Ooooh, she’s going to Munich for a security conference, let’s see if she demonstrates any foreign policy insight? …nope, not at all. Oh well, better luck next time.” > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > We’ll see if this is the best they got for AOC. Seems pretty pathetic to me. …is the best you have against Newsom “he holds positions that 80% of Democrats do”? Because _that_ seems pretty pathetic to _me_, to be honest. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036.md?page=72) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036.md?page=74)