Top row, from left: California Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, and former Vice President Kamala Harris. Bottom row, from left: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Ruben Gallego and Sen. Mark Kelly. Reuters/Getty Images/AP
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For Democrats who are suffering during Trump 2.0, the next presidential election, when the current president is barred from the ballot, can’t come soon enough.
But while they are united in their excitement for the end of President Donald Trump’s term, they also face a wide open primary with no clear anchor or leader and tough questions about the party’s direction, which voters it should try to win over, and which candidate can get people excited to vote for them.
CNN senior reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere covers Democrats, and we’ve talked periodically about the field of potential 2028 candidates, what they’re doing to prepare, and what challenges they’ll face.
As 2025 comes to a close, Dovere gave me the current state of play for a primary that has not officially started, but is very much in the works.
Democrats are feeling better
WOLF: It’s been six months since the last time we talked about Democrats in ‘28. How has the ground shifted?
DOVERE: The main thing that’s happened is that the Democrats are not in as much of an existential panic. They actually had some wins in the ‘25 elections, but it’s also because of a sense, both from the polling data and vibes, that there seems to be some real erosion of support for Trump.
The timeline for a rare wide-open primary starts one year from now
WOLF: When can we expect candidates to start officially saying they’re in the race?
DOVERE: Depending on how (the midterm elections) go, you may start to see (candidates) move somewhat quickly in the beginning of 2027.
It will be a balance between trying to grab on to the Democratic energy if they have a good midterm year and trying to respond to what they hope, at least, will be a feeling of wanting to move past Trump and get on to the next thing. A lot of Democrats already are in that mode, but more people overall would be if ‘26 goes against Trump and if he does more things that alienate him from the electorate.
One difference is going to be that, unless Kamala Harris decides to run again, there is not going to be one anchor person around whom the race is going to be defined. The last time there wasn’t an anchor on the Democratic side was in 1988.
Gavin Newsom is primed and in need of a job
California Gov. Gavin Newsom arrives at a rally in Houston, Texas, on November 8, 2025. Brandon Bell/Getty Images
WOLF: Who is in Democrats’ top tier right now of people who are clearly thinking about running?
DOVERE: The one that comes up first for most people is (California Gov.) Gavin Newsom. Newsom will be term-limited out at the end of next year, so he will not have a job come 2027. His job seems like it may be running for president at that point.
Newsom has had a very big 2025 in terms of reorienting people’s views of him by throwing himself into the fight against Trump, both when the National Guard and ICE came into Los Angeles, and then, most especially, with what he did with the ballot initiative to redistrict/gerrymander California in response to Texas (where Republican-led state redrew its congressional map in the GOP’s favor).
He has really connected with this energy that Democrats want of somebody who’s fighting for them, fighting Trump and, importantly, is winning his fights with Trump so far.
He’s got a book coming out, which is a memoir, not a traditional political campaign book. And he has embraced the general media and campaign strategy of going everywhere all the time and being very forceful with what he’s saying.
And then, of course, there’s his whole social media presence, most of which is not by his hand directly, but it’s in his name — tweets and stuff — satirizing Trump. All of this is really scratching the itch for a lot of Democrats.
Kamala Harris is staying on the road
Former Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles on September 29, 2025. Mario Tama/Getty Images
WOLF: The other person with a book out is Harris, who wrote almost a burn book about the ‘24 campaign. She’s not running for governor of California. Will she run for president?
DOVERE: She decided not to run for governor in large part because she did not want to be governor.
But she has had this massive success in the book tour, both in terms of books sold and the turnout. She announced at the beginning of December that she was going to expand the book tour into 2026. She clearly does not want to be just left behind and not in the conversation about the future. What shape that will take and whether a presidential run would have any juice to it is a real question.
History is against her
WOLF: If she chose to run, it would be her third time.
DOVERE: Importantly, maybe the number one strike against her, is other than Donald Trump, she would be the first person to be the nominee after losing as the nominee since Adlai Stevenson (in 1956!).
Pete Buttigieg is in Trump’s head, but needs a platform
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg makes his way through the crowd before speaking at a rally at the Statehouse in Indianapolis, on September 18, 2025. Michael Conroy/AP
WOLF: Another person who could run again, who is clearly making some moves is (former Transportation Secretary and former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana) Pete Buttigieg, someone Trump likes to criticize, which is probably a badge of honor for some Democrats.
DOVERE: The problem that Buttigieg has — and he knew it was going to be the case going into this year — is that he has no job or platform that naturally positions him to be either in the conversation overall or in opposition to Trump.
All the governors, all the senators, members of the House, these are people who have roles and can find ways to really be doing something. Buttigieg has always been powered by his skill at speaking and communicating, and that’s important now, because that’s all he has.
He’s no longer the fresh face
WOLF: Last time, in 2020, he was only the mayor of South Bend and he won, in hindsight, Iowa.
DOVERE: It’s going to be a different race. And he was the fresh face, very much so, next to Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.
The Bernie Sanders progressive role needs filling
WOLF: Unlikely to run again is Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has been the progressive stalwart for multiple elections. Who will step into that space?
DOVERE: Bernie Sanders turned 84 in 2025. He has seemed to indicate that he does not want to run again. He was there in ‘16, and he was there in ‘20. He was not running in ‘24 but he was an influential player in representing that wing of the party that has become ascendant in a lot of ways.
There is not an obvious heir beyond (Rep.) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. If she decides to run, she will definitely be running with that Bernie Sanders energy. She will be just old enough, constitutionally, to be running for president, and obviously has a lot of power and support.
AOC will be constitutionally eligible, but she has options
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks during an election rally in support of Zohran Mamdani in the Queens borough of New York on October 26, 2025. Andres Kudacki/Getty Images
WOLF: Is she setting off your Spidey sense?
DOVERE: She is very good at making sure that nobody knows exactly what she’s up to and yet cannot ever ignore what she’s up to.
(Sen.) Chuck Schumer is also up for reelection in 2028. There’s a lot of speculation in New York that he will not run for another term, which would open up his seat. Even if he does try to run, he would be potentially ripe for a primary. Ocasio-Cortez is very much in that conversation, too.
What I reported a couple weeks ago is that there are a lot of ambitious New York Democrats who would love to see her run for president, not necessarily because they support her, (but) because they’d like her to leave the Senate race to them. If she runs for Senate she would easily win that primary.
The progressive vote could splinter
DOVERE: If she doesn’t run for president, then those voters are up for grabs in a way that it’s not clear who gets them. Some people in that group support Newsom. Some people in that group support (Illinois Gov. JB) Pritzker. Ro Khanna, the congressman from California, is hoping to connect with them too. He just doesn’t have the same political celebrity that Ocasio-Cortez has, even though he is one of the most, let’s say the 10 to 15 most talked about names in this conversation.
Josh Shapiro can make a geographic argument
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks during a campaign event for Kamala Harris in Pittsburgh on October 10, 2024. Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
WOLF: Who’s the heir to the Biden political base — and by that I mean a more moderate candidate who can talk to non-college-educated White voters?
DOVERE: A lot of people fight over who that would be, right? Certainly, Josh Shapiro in a Trump state. And nobody, literally no one in history has won as many votes as Josh Shapiro has in Pennsylvania. He’s up for reelection in ‘26 and hoping to win as big, in part because it would give real credibility to the idea that he could win Pennsylvania (in the presidential election). If a Democrat can’t win Pennsylvania in 2028, it’s really hard to see how that person would be elected.
But first he needs to run for reelection in ‘26
WOLF: If you’re running for governor in ‘26, are you going to face pressure to finish your term and say that you won’t then run for president?
DOVERE: We’re going to see a lot of artful dodges, right? Everybody changes their mind, or evolves, or whatever. That tends to be something that only people like you and me care that much about.
Pritzker’s billions could help or hurt
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker joins the demonstrators during a “No Kings” protest in Chicago on October 18, 2025. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
WOLF: What about Pritzker? Does he make it into the top tier just because he is a billionaire?
DOVERE: No, because Pritzker has been very successful in fighting Trump, and in doing so both rhetorically, and in terms of policy. Earlier than any other major Democrat — in his February 2025 State of the State address— he was saying that Trump’s “authoritarian playbook” reminded him of the early days leading up to the Third Reich, and he has been very strongly opposed to just about everything out of Trump this whole year. He’s also been leading the charge against Trump’s attempt to bring ICE and the National Guard into Chicago so successfully that people from Tina Kotek, the governor of Oregon — when Trump was going to send the National Guard to Portland — to Zohran Mamdani, the incoming mayor of New York, have called Pritzker to ask for guidance.
And yes, he is a multibillionaire, and should he decide to run, he would have his finances to call on, and that would not hurt.
There are a lot more people making the rounds
WOLF: If that’s the top tier, who else has been traveling around key states?
DOVERE: In the fall, over the course of a couple days, you had both Chris Murphy (senator from Connecticut) and Cory Booker (senator from New Jersey) in New Hampshire. This was not very subtle from either of them, even though it was very early. Booker ran in 2019 into just a couple weeks into 2020. He did very poorly even though there were people who thought he would do well. He just never took off.
Chris Murphy has had a little bit of political rebirth where he has talked more and more about connecting with the kind of energy and populism of Bernie Sanders, which is not where Chris Murphy was earlier in his career. But that’s what he’s talking about now, and has been very much tapping into the anti-Trump energy and figuring out how to be a leader and a conduit for that energy when it comes to what’s going on in the Senate and communicating it in a wider way.
There are Democrats in red states too
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear speaks on August 13, 2025. Michael Hickey/Getty Images for GE Appliances, a Haier company
WOLF: What about Andy Beshear, the red-state Democratic governor in Kentucky?
DOVERE: He’s been elected twice in Kentucky. No other Democrat could even claim that would be possible for them. He’s popular, and he has a record to run on that comes from legislative priorities, but also just managing the state through some problems. They’ve had natural disaster-type problems. He’s affable. He is able to speak from his own faith in a way that often connects with people. But it is Kentucky and he has not had as much exposure on the national stage. He’d be hoping for, essentially, the kind of turn toward a fresh-faced outsider that led the Democrats to go with Jimmy Carter (in 1976) or Bill Clinton (in 1992).
Very wisely or very cannily, he has positioned himself as the chair of the Democratic Governors Association for 2026, which will put him out there more, and if the Democrats win a lot of these governors’ races, he will have be able to claim a hand in making that happen.
Two Sun Belt senators are getting attention
Sen. Ruben Gallego and Sen. Mark Kelly take questions from press after a town hall at NOAH Cholla Health Center in Scottsdale, Arizona, on March 17, 2025. Rebecca Noble/Getty Images
WOLF: Both senators from Arizona are getting some attention.
DOVERE: There’s Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, who are each forging their own interesting pathways through this second Trump term.
Gallego has been traveling around a lot to campaign, especially among Latinos. He’s been in Virginia. He was in Miami, even, for the Democrat who surprisingly won that mayor’s race. He was in New Jersey. He’s been through Chicago too, and he has been talking about what Democrats need to do to appeal to Latinos, but also to younger and to middle-aged men better than they have been.
Mark Kelly, meanwhile, has been on people’s minds over the years, from being an astronaut to being Gabby Giffords’ husband and being on the short list to be Harris’ running mate. In ways that I think surprised him, it became a thing when he was part of that video of members of Congress saying: “don’t follow illegal orders in the military.” You could see how much it riled up the Trump folks that (Defense Secretary) Pete Hegseth launched an investigation into whether he should be court martialed, and the way that Kelly has responded, the substance of it, and the public-facing performance of it, has really resonated with a lot of people.
The House and Senate are full of ambitious future also-rans
WOLF: The field gets quite large if you start adding more lawmakers from the House or Senate.
DOVERE: People tend to forget that there were 27 candidates by the end of 2019. Not all of them made it to the end of 2019 but they included Eric Swalwell (congressman from California), Seth Moulton (congressman from Massachusetts), and Tim Ryan (congressman from Ohio). So there are three members of the House whose campaigns never went anywhere. But they ran because they thought there would be some rationale to getting into that race.
A presidential campaign might not be seriously about becoming president
WOLF: There’s the argument that you know you’re not going to win, but it’s good to get up your profile.
DOVERE: If you look at 2019, there are a couple people who definitely ended up in better shape overall because they ran for president, because they acquitted themselves well over the course of that race. Harris is the most obvious one. She got to be vice president and the Democratic nominee (in 2024). Buttigieg is on that list. Amy Klobuchar (senator from Minnesota) is on that list, too. Most people might have forgotten that she ran because she didn’t do that well, but she was able to break through to a lot of people who hadn’t been paying much attention to her, and connect more, and that has led to her having more power within the Senate and being much more of a player.
Look for 6-10 major candidates
WOLF: Do you think it will be an equally large field in 2028 as in 2019/2020?
DOVERE: It feels like right now you’re likely to see somewhere between six and 10 significant candidates, and whether people will be able to convince themselves that there’s room for more, that’s not clear.
Michelle Obama doesn’t think the country is ready for a woman president
WOLF: Michelle Obama said recently that the country isn’t ready for a woman to be president. Do you think that is the kind of thing that Democratic primary voters agree with?
DOVERE: There will be some hesitation among Democratic primary voters for nominating another woman. The other question is, who that woman would be? Gretchen Whitmer (governor of Michigan) is not, so far, at least moving in a way that convinces people that she’s likely to run for president. Other than Ocasio-Cortez, I think it’s hard to find a woman that many Democrats would even start thinking about in those terms.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition
WOLF: Could there be equal reticence about going for a gay man, for instance, or a person of color?
DOVERE: There’s certainly rationale for what Michelle Obama said. We have had two women as Democratic nominees. (Harris and Hillary Clinton both lost.)
The counterargument to Michelle Obama is really close to home for her, which is that I don’t think a couple years out from the 2008 election, people would have said that the country was ready for a Black president, and arguably the country was not ready for Black president, but they were ready for that candidate, who was Black, who became the president. Is the country ready for a woman president? Whenever that day comes, it’s likely they’re ready for that woman to be president, whoever that woman may be, or that gay candidate, or that Jewish candidate.
There’s also an election coming before the presidential election
The moon is visible behind the US Capitol on December 2, 2025. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
WOLF: There’s a midterm election coming up in 2026. How will that affect 2028?
DOVERE: It will be a way of keeping score, especially if the Democrats take the House, of how many seats each of these contenders can claim credit for.
Newsom has the running start because he added five Democratic seats, essentially, probably, through the redistricting gerrymander or the redistricting ballot proposition.
But in Arizona, Kelly and Gallego are going to be pushing to win a couple of Democratic seats, flip a couple seats there, and they will be campaigning around the country for others.
In Pennsylvania there are a bunch of seats that the Democrats want to flip. Shapiro will be looking to do that with his coattails.
You can go through the list.
The midterm year tends to be a year when these candidates go and start practicing how they’re going to be on the campaign trail. They’ll show up in some of the obvious presidential places, like in New Hampshire, for example. Wherever they’re going, it will be a lot of test driving their own pitches and then essentially watching what kind of response it creates.
