This week, a swarm of potential 2028ers are embarking on a decades-old pilgrimage to New York City for Al Sharpton's annual National Action Network (NAN) Convention – a premier civil rights conference (and opportunity for ambitious Democrats to court the party’s most powerful voting bloc). It’s a voyage nearly every presidential candidate made in 2019, and in 2007, when it was dubbed “the Sharpton primary.”
Thus far, Sharpton has held fireside chats with JOSH SHAPIRO, RO KHANNA, RUBEN GALLEGO, WES MOORE, & JB PRITZKER; KAMALA HARRIS & PETE BUTTIGIEG are on deck today, and ANDY BESHEAR & MARK KELLY tomorrow.
The confab is one of the first true cattle calls of the increasingly visible 2028 shadow campaign, and also one that carries particular weight. As I've noted before, no Dem has won the nomination without winning a majority of the Black vote since 1988 – and KAMALA begins in a dominant position, with hardly a foothold from the rest of the contenders: A recent aggregation of crosstabs from six national polls found Harris at 43% with Black voters, followed by GAVIN at 13%, and nobody else over 5%.
NAN subjects the 2028 hopefuls to challenging cross-pressures as they try to build those inroads, demanding that they directly address the most urgent issues facing Black and Brown communities, while steering clear of both pandering and culture war landmines that continue to haunt Democrats.
So far, it’s gone… surprisingly well? None of the five 2028ers who took the hot seat the first two days have really flopped. But I thought WES MOORE – who just radiates charisma, and had the crowd on its feet throughout – had the best performance, followed by JOSH SHAPIRO, who has perhaps the clearest narrative of the bunch and consistently delivers it with swagger.
GALLEGO was very solid; he just doesn’t really have the big bring-the-house-down moments in these formats. KHANNA was mostly good – especially on his core economic pitch – but he sometimes plays to his audience a bit heavy-handedly, in my opinion; kinda felt like he name-checked every Black leader in US history. And PRITZKER was fine, but seemed uncharacteristically nervous & stilted, despite having stronger civil rights bona fides and relationships than many other 2028ers. We’ll see how the rest of the crew does today + tomorrow.
For other smart takes, read The Long Run’s Steve Morris on how Dems are (or aren’t) talking about race; Semafor’s Dave Weigel on what Sharpton wants to hear; and NOTUS on Dems’ struggle to outline a vision forward.
Pleading the 25th
In the wake of Donald Trump’s very legal & very cool threat to eradicate an entire civilization, a growing number of Democrats have been calling for the 25th Amendment to be invoked to remove him from office – a thing that would require the Vice President, a majority of the Cabinet, and (unless Trump left willingly), a two-thirds vote from both chambers of Congress to enact.
At least four prospective 2028ers from the progressive wing of the party – AOC, RO KHANNA, JB PRITZKER, & CHRIS MURPHY – joined those calls.
It’s a vexing little conundrum for Dems… On the one hand, it seems unserious and disingenuous to suggest there is any world in which this Aaron Sorkin fever dream comes to fruition. (Don’t give false hope to our sweet, sweet Indivisible chapter leads!) On the other hand, it seems unserious and disingenuous to not call for the removal of the Mad King when his finger is on the ol’ NUKE button. It won’t be the last time this comes to the fore, especially if Dems retake the House and Senate in the midterms.
RO KHANNA made a legitimately rousing argument against my cynicism here. But honestly, I think I’d rather be vaporized in a nuclear war than do Impeachment 3.0, from which Trump will somehow emerge as Forever-President with 90% approval + a trillion dollars in new aggrieved merch sales.
Quick Hits
NEWS: The DNC’s Rules & Bylaws Committee – which sets the presidential primary calendar – will meet in DC on May 27-29 to hear presentations from the 12 states that applied to hold early contests. They’ll meet again in June & July with the intention of finishing their work before the DNC’s Summer Meeting in August, where it would be ratified. So we should know the 2028 primary calendar in the next few months, which – as I keep saying – will have a massive impact on the entire shape of the race.
WES MOORE is feuding with a MAGA-fied version of his hometown Baltimore Sun, which was purchased in 2024 by Sinclair Broadcast Group executive chair David Smith, who once told Trump, “We are here to deliver your message." The team of Sinclair investigators the Sun has deployed to probe the minutia of Moore’s personal story has been remarkably hostile – they’ve suggested they’d depose his team, and threatened the governor with military disciplinary action – but the underlying questions are not entirely unfounded…
MOORE also signed a 2027 budget bill that closes a $1.4B shortfall without raising taxes, and published a thoughtful Substack post on pardon power, writing that despite having proudly forgiven 175,000 low-level cannabis convictions, he “can’t shake a deep feeling that the consequences of misused pardons might outweigh the benefits.”
KAMALA HARRIS & CORY BOOKER will both speak at the Michigan Democratic Women's Caucus Legacy Luncheon in Detroit on April 18, before ANDY BESHEAR headlines the party’s annual fundraising gala that evening. MI will very likely be one of the 4-5 early states in 2028.
BESHEAR is also headlining Georgia Dems’ Carter-Lewis Dinner in Atlanta this Saturday.
JOSH SHAPIRO raised another $10M for his reelection bid in Q1 – and now has $36M cash on hand – although with three recent polls showing him up between 18-22 points, maybe he should tell his donors they can chill until he needs their support for another office…
Months ago, I gave you guys raw game tape of JOSH SHAPIRO running point guard for Akiba Hebrew Academy, but the Philadelphia Inquirer got the highlight reel for a fun long-read on his time as ‘The General’ for the unlikely state champion.
ELISSA SLOTKIN told the Des Moines Register and NBC News she’d consider a 2028 bid after the midterms if she felt nobody else was on the right path, as she continued to barnstorm the middle of the country. This swing included keynoting the Polk County Dems’ dinner, a town hall, and a focus group with Trump voters in Iowa – and then heading to Ohio for a town hall with Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureva last night, plus events for Sherrod Brown and co. One consistent theme – as she made clear to Politico’s Adam Wren – is she thinks Dems are desperate for a clean break from the broken status quo.
RUBEN GALLEGO is also not not running for president, telling NBC News “we have to look at it.” He struck a similar tone as SLOTKIN, each making clear they’d be happy to line up behind someone else who can win in 2028, but still don’t see party leaders as meeting the moment.
GALLEGO earned a new distinction from the New York Times this week, which writes: “Of all the Democrats using the F-word, one particular senator has turned the practice into a sort of unseemly art….”
CHRIS MURPHY announced a 12-stop book tour for his forthcoming book Crisis of the Common Good, which arrives May 26; notably, the final two stops are in SC and GA, both of which are vying to hold early 2028 primaries.
PETE BUTTIGIEG will hold a town hall in Tulsa, OK on April 18; he was invited by Monroe Nichols, who became the city’s first-ever Black mayor with his 2024 victory.
RO KHANNA wants King Charles to meet with Epstein victims when he visits the US later this month – and he’s taking the pitch directly to His Majesty, sitting for an extended interview with The Sunday Times this past weekend. Smart! He’s also set to do Jubilee Media’s Surrounded on the topic and is maybe starting a new populist coalition with Marjorie Taylor Green??
Highlights from the Big, Beautiful Tracker
MARK KELLY went on Lemonade Stand
JOSH SHAPIRO on The All-In Podcast
CORY BOOKER on Pod Save America
RAHM EMANUEL on Hacks On Tap
Time Capsule
With PETE BUTTIGIEG set for his fireside chat with Al Sharpton today, I had to share the 2003 column Pete wrote for The Harvard Crimson as then-presidential candidate Al Sharpton was visiting Harvard’s Institute of Politics as part of a series of one-on-ones with White House hopefuls.
But the more things change, the more they stay the same… Pete spent the column bemoaning Dems’ cautiousness and personality deficiency, which he contrasted with the GOP’s shamelessness – and right on cue, an 18-year-old Vivek Ramaswamy showed up at the event that evening to ask Sharpton about his lack of qualifications.
One Last Thing
The first episode of Nobody Knows Anything – me and Rob Flaherty’s new live politics show – is this Sunday at 8pm ET. You can read more about it from Semafor, Politico, or the Washington Post.
It may be a trainwreck – and who doesn’t love watching a trainwreck!? So if you’re interested (or just want me to be happy), please subscribe to our YouTube and tune in Sunday at 8pm ET. Or you know, just carry on living your life, I’ll get over it.
