At the outset of President Trump’s second administration, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) vowed not to be “the leader of the resistance,” but, by last week, Moore was on television telling the leader of the free world to “keep our name out of your mouth,” the Washington Post reports.
“He’s been throwing aggressive counterpunches at the president ever since, an evolution from his brand as a consensus-builder into one of the Democratic Party’s more combative potential presidential contenders.”
“Gov. JB Pritzker doesn’t quite look the same on the campaign trail these days. His pants hang loose, his jacket buttons no longer strain — the Democrat known for his barrel-shaped frame cutting a noticeably trimmer silhouette in his bid for a third term,” Politico reports.
Said Pritzker: “How about, just for health.”
“Or, as just about anyone familiar with the rich history of pre-presidential pound-shedding is starting to suspect, how about for 2028.”
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy is planning to announce that he’ll challenge fellow Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the 2028 election, Fox News reports.
A majority of Republican voters would support President Trump seeking a constitutionally-prohibited third term, according to a new Data for Progress poll.
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Politico: “While Democratic senators and representatives struggle for impact in Trump’s trifecta — bladder-busting 25-hour speeches aside — and party bigwigs tie themselves in knots over dismal funding and poll numbers, it’s a band of combative Democratic governors who’ve grabbed the opportunity to make waves. That opportunity has been afforded them by none other than the president of the United States, whose method of turning the page on the Jeffrey Epstein saga this summer has been a high-profile assault on their cities.”
“And here’s the bottom line: It’s working pretty well for Trump — but it’s working for these guys too.”
Jonathan Martin: “When the Democratic National Committee convenes for its summer meeting in Minneapolis Monday, it’ll begin discussing one of the most contentious, divisive and delicate matters consuming a party out of power: the calendar.”
“Chuckle as you may, the process can be (deeply) political, and little gets Democratic insiders stirred up quite like where and when to begin their presidential nominating contest. The debate is suffused with matters of race, region, class and, perhaps most significantly, the vanity of the would-be kingmakers in the states vying to kick off the 2028 primary.”
“We’re fighting fire with fire, and we’re gonna punch these sons of bitches in the mouth.”
— Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), on The Siren Podcast.
“Democratic Party officials are quietly battling over which state will be the first to vote in the 2028 presidential primary — a fight that’s set to break into the open next week, when the officials meet in Minneapolis,” Axios reports.
“Nevada, New Hampshire, and Michigan are currently the frontrunners to be ‘the new Iowa,’ and lead off the 2028 Democratic primary season.”
A new Politico-Citrin Center poll finds California Democrats would take Gavin Newsom over Kamala Harris in a 2028 presidential primary, 25% to 19%.
“Yes, I’ve changed. The facts have changed we need to change.”
— Gov. Gavin Newsom, in an interview with Fox LA, on how he decided to change his social media strategy and take on President Trump more directly.
A new Echelon Insights survey finds JD Vance leading the 2028 presidential field with 43%, followed by Ron DeSantis and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., tied at 9%, Marco Rubio at 6% and Nikki Haley at 4%.
On the Democratic side, it’s a wide-open field: Kamala Harris leads with 26%, followed by Gavin Newsom at 13%, Pete Buttigieg at 11%, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at 6%, Cory Booker at 5% and JB Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro, and Jasmine Crockett at the back of the pack with 3%.
“Since he took office in 2019, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has sought to place himself on the front lines of orienting the Republican Party around a mix of economic populism and social conservatism to appeal to an increasingly working-class base,” NBC News reports.
“But now, with Republicans in full control of Congress for the first time since he arrived in Washington, Hawley’s mission is coming into conflict with members of his party, who are frustrated with his tendency to follow the beat of his own drum as he grows more critical of some of their policy aims.”
A senior Senate aide said it appeared that Hawley was “trying to load up policy prescriptions to lay the groundwork for a 2028 presidential bid.”
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Jonathan Bernstein: “The bottom line is that candidates just aren’t all that important to general election outcomes, especially at the presidential level. Most voters stick with their party; most independents are actually partisans; and most true independents tend to be swayed far more by ‘fundamentals’ such as the state of the economy than they are by the candidates’ personalities or campaign styles.”
“It doesn’t seem that way because U.S. political culture supports voting for the person, not the party, and so people not only are reluctant to say that they’re just knee-jerk voting for Democrats or Republicans but actually don’t think they’re doing so. And to most of us, it seems that we’re considering candidates individually and voting for the one we like the best. But it (almost always) ain’t so.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s team thinks the redistricting push could give his presidential ambitions a big boost, as he shows an angry Democratic base that he’s actually fighting back against Republicans in power, CNN reports.
But the Los Angeles Times notes there are big risks too if the special election fails in November.
Aaron Rupar and Noah Berlatsky: “Democrats have found their fight. Newsom is leading the charge.”
“Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is taking a gamble that other potential 2028 Democratic presidential contenders are not: that party voters might reward her — or at least not punish her — for working with President Trump,” Axios reports.
“Whitmer’s approach is a sharp break from other prominent Democrats such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who are defining themselves as anti-Trump warriors.”
“Whitmer has visited the White House three times this year — most recently this month, when she met with Trump to discuss tariffs, Medicaid funding and northern Michigan’s recovery efforts from a spring ice storm.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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