How Democrats' potential presidential contenders are scoping out different paths to 2028

NBC News

11-04-2025

Democrats are at a crossroads. And different potential party leaders are already scoping out different potential paths back to power in a few years.
After the party lost November's presidential election, its image has slipped to historic lows, and it lacks significant power in Washington to push back against President Donald Trump's efforts to bend the federal government to his will — even as Democratic voters warm to the idea of an all-out fight against Trump.
It's against that backdrop that key Democratic leaders are making early, yet important, moves about how to position themselves as the party looks toward a wide-open 2028 presidential race. Some seek to resist Trump at all opportunities, others concede victories to Republicans on cultural issues, and still more hope to split the difference — working with Trump when necessary and criticizing him when they disagree.
The early moves are, in many cases, nuanced and layered, and it's clear that not everything these Democrats do should be viewed solely through the lens of potential presidential campaigns. Here's a look at some of the high-profile ways key Democrats have been handling Trump and Republicans in the early months of the administration — and how those moves could set up future presidential campaigns.
Grab a slice of conservatives' pie
Two days after Election Day, California Gov. Gavin Newsom convened a special legislative session that his office declared in a news release was intended to 'safeguard California values and fundamental rights in the face of an incoming Trump administration.' And he has been vocally criticizing Trump over tariffs, asking countries to exclude California-made goods from retaliatory tariffs.
But he has also been making headlines for podcast comments like saying transgender athletes' participating in women's sports is 'deeply unfair,' as well as for hosting former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon on his podcast, letting Bannon's false claims about the 2020 election go unchallenged and emphasizing populist policies on which they agree.
After days of criticism from the left for letting Bannon slide, Newsom responded on his podcast in an interview with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz: 'We can dismiss the notion of election denialism, we can completely dismiss what he did on Jan. 6, but I don't think you can dismiss what he's saying — reminds me a lot of what Bernie Sanders was saying, reminds me a lot of what Democrats said 20, 30 years ago.'
Meanwhile, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania has prompted unfounded speculation that he could consider switching parties, a possibility he has forcefully shot down. But he has notably broken from his party with his ardent support for Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza, he met with Trump at his Florida home, and he was among the dozen Senate Democrats who backed a high-profile federal law requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain undocumented immigrants who have been arrested or convicted or who face certain charges locally.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has been a trickier case. He was among the few Democrats who sang the praises of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., extolling his work in having 'helped us defeat vaccine mandates in Colorado' — before he later posted in support of getting vaccinated.
But while Polis said in his State of the State address in January that he hoped to work with Trump on securing the border, he warned against 'efforts to deport American citizens, to target those on pending legal status, to break up families,' and he has since pressed the administration over the detention of an undocumented immigration and labor activist in the state.
He has also been a vocal critic of Trump's tariffs, taking a shot at another potential Democratic candidate, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, over the issue.
Resist Trump at all costs
Some Democrats are fashioning themselves as the tip of the spear in the Democratic Resistance 2.0 against Trump, in and outside Washington. While some aren't necessarily seen as surefire potential presidential candidates, their attempts to step into the party's leadership vacuum are garnering notice.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has spent much of his political career positioning himself as a potential Trump foil. Now, he has repeatedly invoked Nazi Germany as he launches broadsides against Trump, and he has also been fiercely critical of billionaire Elon Musk. Pritzker also blocked anyone who took part in the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol from working in state jobs.
Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut is taking a similar tack: He has spent almost $1.9 million this year on Meta ads alone (more than twice the amount he spent from the middle of 2019 through 2024), largely attacking Trump, all while he has been front and center in the Senate and in news interviews warning that Trump is a threat to American democracy.
Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who ran for president in 2020, gave deflated Democrats an emotional boost with his record-breaking 25-hour floor speech that excoriated Trump and his policies.
Walz, who had second billing on the ticket that lost to Trump last fall, has made direct broadsides at Trump a centerpiece of his message since he has re-entered the national political fray. He has held town halls in Republican districts in states like Iowa and Wisconsin, and he has criticized Trump as an 'arsonist,' a 'caricature that had a reality TV show that pretended like he knew how to run a business' and the 'worst possible business executive' in a recent appearance on MSNBC.
Then there's Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who has for years been lionized among progressives who see her as an heir-apparent to Sanders' political movement. The 2028 presidential election will be the first in which Ocasio-Cortez, 35, will be old enough to run for president, and she has been barnstorming the country with Sanders, I-Vt., in recent weeks. She has also been spending heavily on social media to get her message out. But it's unclear whether she would take such a big swing to try to jump to national office.
Head down and govern
Yet another group of Democrats are threading the needle between expressing outright support for Trump or joining The Resistance 2.0, evaluating their approach to him case by case while still sending a message of willingness for bipartisan collaboration.
Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, has joined several of her fellow Democratic governors in seeking to strike a balance, saying in a speech in Washington on Wednesday, 'My oath to the people of Michigan is to continue to show up ... no matter who is at the other side of the table.'
Whitmer made the remarks hours before she met with Trump at the White House for the second time in less than a month and stood by in the Oval Office while he signed executive orders targeting his political critics. Whitmer's presence drew swift condemnation from some fellow Democrats, while her spokesperson was quick to make it clear that she wasn't aware the executive orders would be signed while she was there and that her presence in the Oval Office was 'not an endorsement of the actions taken or statements made at that event.'
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has been very critical of Trump's tariffs, is also performing a balancing act in approaching the Trump administration, telling HBO's Bill Maher in an interview this month, 'I think it is a false choice to suggest you need either/or — either you need that resistance, that fight, that opposition, or you need to find ways to compromise and come together.'
In a budget address to state lawmakers last month, Shapiro announced his intention to work with Republicans when he can: 'Folks in this building have been talking about cutting taxes for years. But here I am, a Democratic governor with an aggressive plan to cut taxes, ready to work with you to get it done.'
Days later, Shapiro invoked his 'job as governor to protect Pennsylvania's interests' when his administration sued the Trump administration after it halted federal funds that had previously been committed to the state.
While Shapiro and Whitmer, Democratic governors of states Trump won last year, navigate the tightrope of working with Trump on some issues and working against him on others, other Democrats who govern in states Vice President Kamala Harris won by double digits aren't heeding their optimistic calls to work alongside the new administration.
In his State of the State address this year, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said that he hoped to 'work together [with the new presidential administration] to make progress for Maryland' but that 'if the policy decisions of these past few weeks are any preview, I fear that our most charitable expectations will be met with harsh realities.'
Since then, Moore has been at odds with the Trump administration over tariffs, the imperiled future of the FBI headquarters' move to Maryland and Trump's executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution, which Trump said was influenced by 'a divisive, race-centered ideology.'
'Loving your country does not mean lying about its history,' Moore, Maryland's first Black governor, told CNN. 'Loving your country does not mean dismantling those who have helped to make this country so powerful.'
Charting their own paths
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear delivered his State of the Commonwealth address in early January, days before Trump's inauguration — and didn't mention him at all, instead arguing that the state has 'made progress by pushing out that national noise, by working together.'
But Beshear has since waded into criticism of Trump not just on tariffs but more broadly, too.
'His policies are going to specifically hurt my people. Tariff policy is going to hit Kentucky harder than just about anywhere else,' he said last month on an episode of the liberal podcast 'Pod Save America.'
'People should be alarmed in the very least that we have a president who apparently does not believe in his oath of office and doesn't value the fact the Constitution only makes him one branch of government.'
Rep. Ro Khanna of California, who for years has been seen as a possible presidential hopeful, spent last summer touring steel and coal towns trying to connect with rural workers. Khanna has spent recent months laying out a road map for Democrats that includes grounding the party in prioritizing workers while keeping up the pressure on Trump and not demonizing those 'who have differing viewpoints on social or cultural issues.'
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made some veiled criticism of Trump in a Substack post explaining his decision not to run for the Senate or governor in Michigan in 2026, clearing the way for him to pursue another presidential campaign in 2028.
But after The Atlantic revealed that senior Trump administration officials used a Signal chat to discuss planned strikes against Houthi rebels, Buttigieg has been more direct.
'From an operational security perspective, this is the highest level of f--- up imaginable. These people cannot keep America safe,' Buttigieg, a former Naval Reserve intelligence officer, wrote on X.