OPINION:
It’s the dog days of summer, so let’s take a look at election 2028. Sure, there are 1,181 days until Election Day, but the Democrats couldn’t be in a worse position.
How bad is it? Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, the 35-year-old who was a bartender just a few years ago, is atop the polls. But then, Democrats have hit new lows aside from the AOC thing: Just 32% identify as Democrats, which makes sense after they followed Kamala Harris off the cliff in 2024.
Ms. Harris was swept across all seven swing states on the way to a wipeout loss in what was supposed to be one of the closest elections in history. (Well, that’s according to the mainstream media; you could have dropped an alien in Des Moines and it would’ve told you she was about to be blazed.)
So now the desperate race is on to find the new party leader who, in 2028, can go up against whoever is carrying the MAGA torch. (First notice here: It won’t be J.D. Vance.) The White House wannabes are lining up their ducks, but it’s clear that in the past 100 years, there’s never been a bench so weak, so full of candidates who might eke out the nomination but get crushed in the general, as this paltry lot.
Ms. Harris recently bailed on the governor’s race in California (she would’ve gotten crushed) and then declared the system “broken” (that’s what a loser does when they lose). She’s done. She may run for something again, but she’ll never win again.
So who are they talking about? Sure, California Gov. Gavin Newsom seems like the obvious pick, and he’s been moderating his extreme positions in an effort to capture Middle America. For instance, he hosts right-of-center guests on his podcast, and in March, he sat down with Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk.
The governor said that allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports, something that most elected Democrats supported throughout 2024, is “deeply unfair.” He’s handsome and young (although anyone is young compared with the octogenarians we’ve had at the helm for the past bunch of years), so it’ll probably be him on the ticket in 2028.
But then there’s Gov. Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania and Gov. Wes Moore from Maryland. Mr. Shapiro, with his Midwestern appeal and knack for governing in a swing state, is quietly building a case as the quintessential “safe” candidate. And Mr. Moore is being whispered about as Obama 2.0. “I think Josh Shapiro is the Democrat most likely to beat a Republican in 2028,” Jon McHenry, vice president of North Star Opinion Research and a Republican polling analyst, told the Daily Caller.
“The way he’s governed in Pennsylvania, which maybe wouldn’t win him a nomination on the Republican side, has still been pretty effective. He just seems like he has an ear for essentially the middle of the state of Pennsylvania, which is also essentially an ear for the middle of the country, in a way that a lot of Democrats don’t seem to have. You know, Tim Walz is the perfect example. He’s from Minnesota, he looks like your football coach, and he’s just as completely out of touch as you can be, whereas Josh Shapiro actually seems like he gets it,” he said.
How about Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who, unlike Mr. Shapiro, decided to join the big-time loser ticket of Ms. Harris in 2024? Mr. Beshear hopes his folksy charm will translate past the Bluegrass State, and Mr. Walz hopes … well, who knows what he hopes. Once a loser, always a loser. Fork him too; he’s done.
The invisible primary is already underway. Candidates are locking down donors and endorsements, counting down the 1,181 days. But their prospects, at least right now, do not look so good. A recent Gallup poll put the party’s approval rating at the lowest ever.
Adolph Mongo, a Michigan-based Democratic commentator and consultant, summed it up best.
“A bunch of losers,” he told the Caller. “I’m looking for someone who’s going to be more realistic and who’s going to be able to not only dish it out but be able to take it. The Democrats, they ran a spineless 2024 campaign, they let Republicans create the narrative, and they never responded to it.
“They just dropped the ball on several issues, one on immigration, two on transgender rights. Three, they took their base for granted, Black voters, Hispanic voters — they just did everything wrong. And the biggest boo-boo was they knew that the president, two or three years ago, should have just been a one-term guy, and they didn’t do anything and waited too late. … They might as well have just left him in,” Mr. Mongo said.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.
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