# 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:** 91
**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:** [April 5, 2026, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1802 "2026-04-05T03:47:14Z")
The assumption that there’s zero possibility left wing voters could be inspired and brought into the tent to be political assets strikes me as an incredible loser’s mentality. Maybe they could help us win? Also the idea that charisma doesn’t matter is just laughable. Trump didn’t win on issues, he won on being Trump. Obama didn’t win on issues, he won (in a landslide!) on being Obama. ---
**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:** [April 5, 2026, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1803 "2026-04-05T13:06:35Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > I don’t disagree with you in principle, but I worry that any candidate advertising an extreme move leftwards keeps the White House in GOP hands. And I worry that a candidate who doesn’t keeps the White House red. A large part of Trump’s support comes from people who know that Business As Usual isn’t working, and Trump offers a change from that. They’re wrong about why it’s not working, of course, but they’re right that it’s not working. Those voters will be attracted by a hard-left candidate or a hard-right one, and will vote against any moderate. > [@PhillyGuy](#): > > As seen below, we already tried that. It IMHO was mostly a good idea, but doing it again in 2028 seems to me both unlikely and a mistake. See: > > [Could Obama Win a Democratic Primary Today?](https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/could-obama-win-a-democratic-primary) Obama’s biggest fault was that he was too mainstream. He tried to respond to unprecedented Republican moves with the same old tactics. > [@Babale](#): > > Exactly this. I don’t see how you can possibly claim we’ve moved rightward since Obama, much less “the last couple decades”. For starters, we now have a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court who believes that democracy doesn’t matter, including two actual rapists. ---
**Author:** ![ZosterSandstorm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e0b2c6/32.png) [@ZosterSandstorm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZosterSandstorm)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1804 "2026-04-05T13:40:05Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > The assumption that there’s zero possibility left wing voters could be inspired and brought into the tent to be political assets strikes me as an incredible loser’s mentality. Maybe they could help us win? “The Frog Party should really keep trying to get the Scorpion vote. Forget about what happened in 2016 and 2020 and 2024. It will all work out this time. I should know, I’m a scorpion!” ---
**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:** [April 5, 2026, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1805 "2026-04-05T14:35:31Z")
They voted Dem overwhelmingly in '08, strongly in '12 and '20, and still majority in '16 and '24. And you still see them as the enemy? It’s nuts. A group that’s strongly but not perfectly Democratic, that has been overwhelmingly Democratic at times in the past couple of decades, and could maybe be the difference between winning and losing. Sounds to me like a big tent Democratic constituency, as long as we don’t deliberately try to oppose them. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1806 "2026-04-05T15:28:16Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > I don’t see how you can possibly claim we’ve moved rightward since Obama, much less “the last couple decades” One thing to bear in mind though is that progress in some social areas does not necessarily mean a _general_ “leftward” move. You can be pro-LGBT/pro-choice/pro-vax AND pro-gun/anti-immigrant/pro-fossil-fuel. The clever trick on the RW has been to be much more effective convincing people that if they support the latter set of policies, they MUST oppose the former. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1807 "2026-04-05T17:38:01Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Those voters will be attracted by a hard-left candidate or a hard-right one, and will vote against any moderate. If this was true, the Trumpy congressional districts represented by Democrats would have leftist House members. Instread they are represented by moderates and centrists like Jared Golden and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2026, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1808 "2026-04-12T19:27:01Z")
Newsom: Isn’t it great how Trump is starving the people of Cuba and threatening to take over their country? > **[Gavin Newsom Praises Trump Admin's Cuba Policy: 'We're Having a Different...](https://www.latintimes.com/gavin-newsom-praises-trump-admins-cuba-policy-were-having-different-conversation-leadership-596188)** > > California Gov. Gavin Newsom praised the Trump administration's Cuba policy, saying its "quasi blockade," preventing the country from receiving fuel, allowed it to have "different conversations" with its leadership. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2026, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1809 "2026-04-12T19:31:38Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Newsom: Isn’t it great how Trump is starving the people of Cuba and threatening to take over their country? Not at all what Newsom said. Try a less biased and bogus cite next time. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2026, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1810 "2026-04-12T19:47:50Z")
“You see, when Newsom said he appreciates and admires how Trump has imposed a blockade that has caused Cuba’s power grid to fail and is bringing on a famine because it makes it easier to impose a new government on them, what he REALLY meant was…” ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2026, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1811 "2026-04-12T19:55:56Z")
Listen to the recording of what he actually said. “I appreciate in one respect… the situation regarding Venezuela..” ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2026, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1812 "2026-04-12T19:57:09Z")
In response to a question about Cuba. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2026, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1813 "2026-04-15T20:37:55Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > …But your point does stand - people _thought_ it was true and meant [GHW] Bush was super out of touch [about grocery scanners], and he won anyways… Well, he won the GOP nomination that year, 1992, but he lost that fall. > [@PhillyGuy](#): > > …We could have a thread on whether teaching cursive – first, second, or never – is good in the abstract… Here you go. I posted there: [Is cursive dying?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cursive-dying/701072) ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1814 "2026-04-30T23:17:12Z")
This is probably way premature, but what we do around here is speculate, amirite? > # A Democratic Version of the Tea Party Is Emerging > > [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/opinion/graham-platner-janet-mills-susan-collins-senate.html?unlocked\_article\_code=1.e1A.bMAe.FhkkB0PuXbmL&smid=url-share/](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/opinion/graham-platner-janet-mills-susan-collins-senate.html?unlocked_article_code=1.e1A.bMAe.FhkkB0PuXbmL&smid=url-share/) I want to call your attention to this guy: > In October, Graham Platner’s insurgent campaign appeared doomed. > > …… > > But Maine Democrats, many of whom saw Platner in person as he tirelessly barnstormed across the state, seemed ready to look past the negative stories. On Thursday, Mike Hurley, the former mayor of Belfast, Maine, told me he “loves” Mills, but had been backing Platner because **he wanted a brawler. While Republicans are playing “hardball,” he said, Democrats in Washington seem like they’re playing “T-ball.”** Hurley was impressed, he said, by how Platner soldiered on after his disastrous October: “A lot of people would crumble under the kind of pressure he’s been under, and he’s not crumbling.” He felt as though he understood him. “Platner is a very recognizable kind of person in small towns,” said Hurley. “He’s a thoughtful loudmouth.” > > … > > Though a newcomer to politics, **Platner turned out to be a natural on the stump.** In October, at a low point in his campaign, I went to Maine to [interview him and attend one of his town halls](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/opinion/graham-platner-democrats.html). Watching him address hundreds of people crammed into a small-town school auditorium, **I could feel the charge in the air — that rare alchemy born when a politician is able to pull a crowd into a shared vision of the future. One attendee likened it to seeing Barack Obama when he first ran for president.** > > Platner spoke about the struggles of working people for whom a decent life seemed out of reach, about the disastrous wars he’d fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, and about the need for a Democratic Party with New Deal-scale ambitions. And he spoke to people’s feelings of being abandoned to Trump’s depredations by a weak and fumbling Democratic Party. “Nobody is coming to save us,” he said, positioning himself as a leader who could help people save themselves. > > … > > “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Maine candidate — and I don’t care who they are, Angus King, Susan Collins or Olympia Snowe — nobody has ever had this kind of response or support,” said Hurley. > … My bold. There’s more in the article (gift link). I’ve never heard of this guy. Has anyone seen him in action? The Democrats need to find **someone** who can rally the troops and make people believe change is possible. ---
**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:** [April 30, 2026, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1815 "2026-04-30T23:33:20Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > There’s more in the article (gift link). I’ve never heard of this guy. He’s a Nazi. No, really. I’m not being hyperbolic. He’s literally a Nazi. As in, he got kicked out of the Marines because he had Nazi tattoos. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1816 "2026-04-30T23:40:34Z")
From the article (if you read it): > … > Journalists reported on old Reddit posts where he wrote that all cops are bastards, spoke about fighting fascism with guns and seemed to blame rape victims for their own assaults. His political director resigned. Hoping to get ahead of an even more damaging story, Platner revealed that a skull tattoo he’d gotten while he was in the Marines, when he was drunk with his friends on leave in Croatia, looked like a Nazi Totenkopf symbol. His public image abruptly transformed from working-class hero to **guy with a Nazi tattoo**. Many declared his candidacy dead. > > But Maine Democrats, many of whom saw Platner in person as he tirelessly barnstormed across the state, seemed ready to look past the negative stories… > … My bold. **IS** he a Nazi? ---
**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:** [April 30, 2026, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1817 "2026-04-30T23:44:33Z")
How many non-Nazis do you know who get Nazi tattoos? And, when given a choice between their job that they claim to love and a Nazi tattoo, choose the tattoo? ---
**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:** [May 1, 2026, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1818 "2026-05-01T00:30:30Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I’ve never heard of this guy. Has anyone seen him in action? You’ve never heard of who, Graham Platner? He’s The Boy With The Nazi Tattoo. I’ve heard far more of him and about him than I’d want to in a thousand years. ---
**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:** [May 1, 2026, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1819 "2026-05-01T00:32:19Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > He’s a Nazi. > > No, really. I’m not being hyperbolic. He’s literally a Nazi. As in, he got kicked out of the Marines because he had Nazi tattoos. > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > My bold. > > **IS** he a Nazi? Yep. The “Democratic version of the Tea Party” bit is more true than you can possibly imagine - he’s an illiberal populist who’s on the vanguard of a movement that, if it achieved its goals, will either destroy the Democratic party or make us _wish_ that they did. So you know, exactly like the Tea Party. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1820 "2026-05-01T00:42:41Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > **IS** he a Nazi? There’s a thread about him. I haven’t read it. > [@Are there any reasons to reject Graham Platner in Maine](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine/1028179): > > He seems to be getting the Mamdani treatment. I know he has a tattoo on his chest that has potential nazi symbolism as its a skull and crossbones. However his argument is he just picked it off a wall and didn’t know the meaning, and after he found out the meaning he got the tattoo changed. Is Platner being criticized for reasons other than just being a more progressive alternative to Mills? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frontrunners-for-democratic-presidential-nomination-in-2028/1013036/1821 "2026-05-01T00:51:41Z")
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