Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky is telling reporters that he “would consider” a presidential bid. Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the most recent Democratic vice-presidential nominee, says that if he is “asked to serve,” he will do “whatever it takes” to run.
And Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona, who dodged a question about his presidential ambitions by mentioning the imminent birth of his third child, couldn’t help adding, “Babies get older.”
Before the shadow primary — the quiet frenzy of courting donors, aides and the news media that defines the earliest stages of a presidential race — comes a period of politics that is a bit louder and a whole lot sillier.
Call it the chatter primary.
And this year, the talk about the 2028 presidential race seems to be coming from nearly every direction in the Democratic Party.
“Right now, I’m not running for anything,” Pete Buttigieg, the former transportation secretary who ran for president in 2020, told reporters in Iowa last week. “But, of course, it means a lot to hear that people who supported me then continue to believe in what I have to say.”
The party’s next primary battle is widely expected to be highly competitive and very crowded. Political kibitzers have flung around at least 19 names, crafting an early list that includes governors, senators, House members, former Biden administration officials and even some business leaders.
In recent weeks, those would-be, could-be candidates have made splashy visits to early nominating states, held town-hall events far from home, raised eyebrows with a flurry of interviews, and quietly signaled to journalists that, yes, a run for president might well lie ahead.
Presidential contests typically speak to the nation’s future, with candidates offering a fresh vision for the country.
But in this primeval stage, nearly all of the potential Democratic candidates are discussing problems that have bedeviled their party for years: how to win back working-class voters, how aggressively to oppose President Trump and how to reach voters beyond the traditional news media. In recent days, the party has also found itself grappling anew with former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s decision to seek re-election and whether he was fit to lead the country.
For all the talk about a demoralized Democratic Party in need of new ideas, few actual new ideas are being proposed. For now, at least, the party’s most ambitious leaders are focused more on new podcasts than on new policies.
But there’s certainly plenty of enthusiasm.
“It’s a whole new opportunity for Democrats to get excited about a totally new slate of people,” said Adrienne Elrod, a party strategist who has worked on four presidential campaigns. “We got a deep bench who is ready to rock ’n’ roll, and I think a spirited debate and a robust primary will be a very good thing for our party.”
Unlike in the party’s past four presidential nominating contests, there is currently no obvious Democratic front-runner — no sitting vice president, president or past nominee waiting for another turn. Former Vice President Kamala Harris is leaning toward a run for governor of California, telling friends that doing so would rule out another presidential bid.
The result is a dog pile of possible contenders who see little downside to raising their national profiles — even if they eventually decide not to leap into an actual campaign.
So far, most of the action is little more than talk. Nobody has declared a candidacy, announced the hiring of senior strategists, unveiled a campaign website or publicly solicited donations for a White House bid.
At least four of the governors frequently mentioned as contenders — JB Pritzker of Illinois, Wes Moore of Maryland, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Mr. Walz — are expected first to run for re-election in 2026 but have yet to formally announce such plans.
Mr. Pritzker dodged questions about his presidential ambitions in an interview last month, saying Democrats should be concentrating on winning back the House in the midterm elections.
“2026 is what we all ought to be focused on,” he said before addressing an audience of Democratic activists in New Hampshire, a state with a century-long hold on the nation’s first presidential primary election.
Mr. Walz, for his part, has been meeting with donors as he tours the country for town halls and other appearances. But he does not have a federal fund-raising account, which is required for a presidential campaign, and he has been collecting money only into the account he plans to use for his re-election campaign next year.
That reality hasn’t stopped the 2028 speculation, which is starting notably soon after a defeat — even by the drawn-out standard of American presidential campaigns.
Seeking a historical parallel, veteran Democrats have reached back to 1992, when their party was leaderless and rudderless after a dozen years of Republicans controlling the White House.
Jerry Brown, the former California governor who ran for president in 1976, 1980 and 1992, said the “unusually early” start to the 2028 race was driven by a desire for more vocal opposition to a president who many Democratic voters believe is lawless, corrupt and plunging the country into autocracy.
“Democrats are looking for leaders, for someone who will speak out and say something intelligent about the current situation in America,” Mr. Brown said. “At this point, it’s unclear who could become the leader, and that lack of clarity invites a wide swath of participants.”
Some possible contenders have been thirstier than others.
“Yes,” former Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island said when asked at a University of Chicago Institute of Politics event about whether she would consider running. “If I think there’s a big way for me to serve again, including running, I’ll do it.”
Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor and an ambassador under Mr. Biden, put it even more bluntly. “I am in training — I don’t know if I’ll make the Olympics,” he said on ABC’s “The View.”
Senator Gallego was particularly frank.
“Has it ever crossed my mind?” he mused to NBC News before addressing voters at a town hall in Bucks County, Pa., a swing area in a swing state across the country from the one he represents.
Of course, he said, adding an expletive.
“I’m an elected official; it crosses my mind,” he said. “Am I thinking about it right now? Absolutely not.”
Some prominent contenders — including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Raphael Warnock of Georgia — have declined to stoke the speculation quite as openly. Their names, after all, are already being mentioned regularly.
Mark Cuban, the outspoken Democratic businessman, has told friends that he would consider running only if Mr. Trump pursued an unconstitutional third term and if Mr. Cuban believed he could beat the president, according to a person who has spoken with him.
Among Democratic officials and strategists, small actions and stray remarks are scrutinized as intensely as texts from a brand-new romantic interest.
Mr. Beshear has brought on a veteran of the Harris campaign, Lauren Hitt, to help promote him in the national news media. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California is making conspicuous efforts to moderate his liberal image, recalibrating his policy positions on issues like immigration and hosting leaders of the MAGA movement on his podcast.
Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey and Chris Murphy of Connecticut have tried to break out of the stuffiness of their chamber and reach a broader audience with attempts at going viral online. And several Democrats, including Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ro Khanna of California, have captured headlines by hosting town-hall meetings in battleground states far from home.
Plenty are courting donors. Mr. Beshear and Mr. Newsom this month popped into a gathering of donors hosted by Future Forward, the super PAC that backed the Biden-then-Harris campaign.
And Mr. Moore and Mr. Walz are planning to speak to Democrats in South Carolina, another early primary state, in two weeks, the sort of old-school move typical of those feeling out a potential presidential campaign.
Still, one Democrat had a word of caution about embracing the chatter primary too eagerly.
“My advice is to not do what I did,” said former Representative John Delaney of Maryland, who announced his 2020 presidential bid in July 2017 and ended up dropping out before the Iowa caucuses. “It’s not just because it didn’t work for me, but I think it doesn’t work. I think there’s now ample evidence that it doesn’t work.”
Lisa Lerer is a national political reporter for The Times, based in New York. She has covered American politics for nearly two decades.
Reid J. Epstein covers campaigns and elections from Washington. Before joining The Times in 2019, he worked at The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Newsday and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The post Is Every Top Democrat Running for President? appeared first on New York Times.
