Former Vice President Kamala Harris accused the Trump administration of being historically ineffective and unethical. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey urged Democrats not to be derailed by their internal disagreements. And Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky said the party could lure back working-class voters by focusing on kitchen-table issues.
The 2028 presidential shadow primary arrived in the swing state of Michigan on Saturday, with several potential Democratic candidates test-driving their pitches before a crowd of party activists eager to turn the page on President Trump.
The Democrats’ remarks at a luncheon hosted by the Michigan Democratic Party were part of a weekend of programming in Detroit that will culminate with the state party’s convention on Sunday. Michigan has been pivotal in recent Democratic presidential primaries and general elections.
A week ago, the three potential candidates — and many more — gathered in New York for a convention that was the first of many Democratic auditions before what is expected to be a wide-open 2028 race. As they travel the country, these Democrats are delivering stump-speech-style messages that often include sharp criticisms of the president and his party.
“We are dealing with the most corrupt, callous and incompetent presidential administration in the history of the United States — period,” Ms. Harris, the 2024 nominee, said at the luncheon Saturday, decrying a war with Iran that “the American people do not want” and that she said has eroded the nation’s global standing.
Mr. Booker, who ran for president in 2020, called for Democrats to unify going into the midterm elections, saying that the Trump administration was inflicting a “terrible storm” on Americans through its handling of immigration, the economy and the Iran war.
“Our kryptonite is division,” Mr. Booker said, adding that the party should have a “robust dialogue” during the primary season but should not allow its disagreements to bleed into the general election. “I’ve seen it too much in our party.”
He said some Democrats turned away from Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Ms. Harris in 2024 because they disagreed with them on a sliver of the issues. (Ms. Clinton and Ms. Harris both narrowly lost Michigan to Mr. Trump.) “You may disagree with her on 10 percent of her views,” Mr. Booker said of voters who did not turn out for Ms. Harris. “But you let someone get in office who you disagree with on everything.”
Mr. Beshear downplayed his own remarks, calling Ms. Harris the “star of the show.” But he offered himself as “living, breathing proof” that Democrats could “win in places that you don’t expect,” emphasizing that Mr. Trump carried his state by 31 percentage points.
“We do it by recognizing that when most people wake up in the morning, they’re not thinking about politics,” Mr. Beshear said. “They’re thinking about their jobs, and whether they make enough to support their family.”
Mr. Beshear was scheduled to appear later Saturday at a dinner honoring Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. Seen by some Democrats as a potential 2028 contender, Ms. Whitmer has not been as overt as other Democrats in expressing interest in a run. “I anticipate helping, but I don’t know if I’m going to be the person,” she said last fall.
Michigan, a perennial swing state with a diverse electorate, has played a central role in past Democratic presidential primaries. In 2020, Joseph R. Biden Jr. took firm command of the Democratic presidential race against Senator Bernie Sanders with a decisive win in Michigan.
The state has also been at the center of some of Democrats’ most divisive debates. In the 2024 presidential primary, about one in eight voters in Michigan voted “uncommitted” as part of a protest of Mr. Biden’s approach to the war in Gaza. (He was running for re-election at the time.)
In recent months, Ms. Harris and Mr. Booker have embarked on national book tours, fueling 2028 speculation. At the convention in New York, Ms. Harris said she “might” run, and Mr. Booker brushed aside a question about 2028 by saying he was focused on “present action.”
In interviews, attendees of the luncheon on Saturday were split on whether Ms. Harris should run again. Antoinette Wallace, 46, a Macomb County commissioner from Mount Clemens, said, “I honestly don’t think she should.”
“She gave all that she could” in 2024, Ms. Wallace said. “But I think the United States has already shown her that there’s not a lot of support where it’s needed.”
One Democrat and potential presidential candidate who lives in Michigan, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, was not in the state on Saturday, instead making a weekend tour through Kansas and Oklahoma.
On Saturday in Wichita, Kan., Mr. Buttigieg, a former Navy intelligence officer, deplored what he described as the “madness” of Mr. Trump’s decision to take the United States to war in Iran.
Mr. Buttigieg, a 2020 presidential candidate who has long made regular appearances on conservative media, declared in his speech that “there is no such thing as a permanently red state.”
In Detroit, one luncheon attendee, Jennifer Austin, 50, suggested she was far from deciding whom she might support in 2028.
“I’m not picking my favorites right now,” Ms. Austin said, adding, “We could have somebody that completely comes out of the woodwork that we don’t even know about yet.”
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