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The 2026 midterm elections are still months away, but that doesn’t mean candidates aren’t already laying the groundwork for possible presidential runs. With no incumbent in the White House, the Democratic Party presidential field is wide open this cycle. Here are the top 10 contenders.
10. Kamala Harris
Only Presidents Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, and Richard Nixon lost their first presidential general elections before going on to win their second, so former Vice President Kamala Harris already faces an uphill climb should she choose to run again in 2028. But what little hope she did have quickly evaporated with her roundly mocked book tour. Vapid, self-serving, and bereft of any positive vision for the country, Harris’s book only reminded voters of why she failed to win a single contest in the 2020 primary. She may be a fundraising powerhouse for years to come, but her presidential aspirations are over.
9. JB Pritzker
The best thing Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) has going for him is that he is rich. He is worth somewhere around $4 billion, made mostly from hospitality investments, not too unlike President Donald Trump. Pritzker poured more than $171 million into his 2018 gubernatorial election, and his ability to light his money on fire will be his biggest asset should he run for president in 2028. His biggest liabilities are that he is fat, white, and male, the first of which is a liability in any election, and the last two are hindrances in a Democratic Party primary. There is nothing moderate or business-friendly about his record. It is straight progressive party-line thinking: free healthcare for illegal immigrants, higher spending on everything, and higher taxes. Most people on this list support the same policies. There is nothing unique about his policy profile. He’ll last as long as he keeps opening his checkbook, but he won’t win anything.
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8. Pete Buttigieg
The Democratic Party is increasingly controlled by rich, single white women, and if this were the only demographic that voted in Democratic Party primaries, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg would win in a landslide. Liberal white women love Buttigieg like he was their own gay son or brother. Minority voters? Not so much. An Emerson College poll taken in June that had Buttigieg leading every other candidate in the field, albeit at just 16, also had him at 0% — that’s right: zero — among black voters. You simply can’t win a Democratic Party presidential primary with no support from the black community.
7. Chris Murphy
Fresh off separating from the mother of his two children, Sen. Chris Murphy’s (D-CT) greatest asset is his media-savvy new girlfriend, who, at 10 years his junior, brings experience as former President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign digital producer. Always quick with a new straight-to-camera TikTok reaction to the latest outrage of the day, Murphy has positioned himself as a leader of the Trump Resistance. Despite making noises about Democrats needing an agenda that speaks directly to young men, Murphy has failed to offer anything of substance that wasn’t already part of former President Joe Biden’s failed Build Back Better agenda. Murphy does not yet have the name recognition to register in the 2028 primary polling, but his social media success could net him the donor support needed to make the debate stage.
6. Andy Beshear
Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) is exactly the type of centrist Democratic governor with a proven ability to win elections in red states that the Democratic Party needs to win back the White House. And that is exactly why he won’t win. He’s too white, too male, and far too centrist. Beshear has never tried to give illegal immigrants healthcare, force Kentuckians into electric cars, or open government-run grocery stores. As governor of a coal-producing and consuming state, he’s also prioritized jobs and growth over fanciful carbon reduction targets. Beshear simply has not done enough to establish himself as an opponent of Trump to make a significant splash in the primaries, which is why he hasn’t risen above 3% in any poll.
5. Josh Shapiro
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) not only has a centrist reputation like Beshear, but he won the swing state of Pennsylvania by a commanding 22-point margin and gained national recognition for his impressive handling of the Interstate 95 bridge collapse in Philadelphia. In an era where voters from both parties are desperate for politicians to build things, Shapiro proved it could be done, turning what was first estimated to be a monthslong project into just 12 days. But like Beshear, Shapiro is out of touch with the highly motivated progressive wing of the party that sees him as far too conservative on climate, criminal justice, and healthcare. And then there is Shapiro’s support for Israel, an issue which has rapidly become a litmus test among Democratic Party primary voters, and Shapiro is on the wrong side of it.
4. Ruben Gallego
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) has the ideal biography for a Democratic presidential nominee. The son of immigrants, Gallego grew up poor in Chicago, raised by a single mother. Not only was he the first in his family to go to college, but he is also a Marine who served in Iraq. He has impeccable progressive credentials, joining the Congressional Progressive Caucus upon entering Congress in 2015 and co-sponsoring the Medicare for All Act and the “People’s Budget.” The only thing he has moderated on is immigration, voting for the Laken Riley Act and producing a comprehensive immigration plan that the Wall Street Journal editorial board would love. He outperformed Harris by 8 points in Arizona, proving he can win independent and Republican votes in a swing state. He is young, 46, but that will be an asset for any Democrat in 2028, as the party is looking for fresh faces after the geriatric failure of Biden. He might not run, but recent trips to Iowa and Pennsylvania show he is at least thinking about it. With no other Hispanic male in the race, Gallego would be a formidable candidate.
3. Wes Moore
A Rhodes Scholar, Afghanistan combat veteran, and the nation’s only black governor, Gov. Wes Moore’s (D-MD) biography is every bit as compelling as Gallego’s, and he is just as young. Unlike Gallego, Moore has always sold himself as more of a centrist than a committed progressive. He has described himself as a “social moderate and strong fiscal conservative” and has declined to endorse the Progressive Caucus’s Medicare for All bill. He has successfully raised taxes by over $1.6 billion on Maryland residents, however, and has increased spending on education, child care, and abortion. He also signed the Trans Health Equity Act, mandating that Medicaid cover hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and sex change surgeries. Moore denies he is running in 2028, but he has traveled to South Carolina, where, as the only black candidate in the field, he would have a distinct advantage.
2. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
At 39, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is the youngest candidate on this list by almost a decade and one of the only women. She has an innate understanding and mastery of social media that is simply unmatched in the party. When a who’s who of Democratic figures made ads for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) Proposition 50 gerrymandering plan, her video outperformed everyone, including both Newsom and Obama. She already has perhaps the largest national digital fundraising base in the Democratic Party, and her staff is stocked with veterans from Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) presidential campaigns. And unlike most of her rivals, she begins the race with a unified, enthusiastic progressive base that gives her an instant floor of national support no other Democrat can match.
1. Gavin Newsom
It is early, but Newsom is simply the undisputed front-runner to be the 2028 Democratic Party presidential nominee. Outside of one recent outlier, Newsom holds a commanding lead over his probable rivals in all recent polls, and he is the unquestioned leader of the Democratic Party in the nation’s largest state. And unlike everyone else on the list, it is clear Newsom wants the job and fully intends to run in 2028. He has traveled to all the early presidential primary states for listening tours and constantly asserts himself into national conversations, taking on not just Trump, but also Vice President JD Vance and Govs. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Greg Abbott (R-TX). Newsom is not as young as Ocasio-Cortez or Moore, but at 58, he is decades younger than Biden, and while he is not as natural a social media talent as Ocasio-Cortez, he still gets it. Unlike Gallego, Shapiro, and Beshear, Newsom has never needed to win a Republican vote in his life, and he has a left-wing governing record to prove it. But Newsom does not need any Republican votes to win the Democratic nomination. He only needs to consolidate Democrats, and he already starts with more of them than anyone else. With unmatched name recognition, a massive donor network, a polished national media presence, and the implicit backing of the party’s most powerful coastal institutions, Newsom begins this race not just as a contender, but as the prohibitive favorite.
