Barbara Drummond wasn’t asking anyone to endorse her – but we’ll get back to that.
~
When you think about political endorsements, you typically think about an influential person using their clout to boost a preferred candidate. For example, in the GOP, aging cult leader Donald Trump effectively decrees who shall be the party’s nominee via late-night TRUTH.
But in the 2028 Democratic shadow primary, endorsements are often meant to communicate more about the endorsers than the endorsees.
In part, the party is just leaderless, and therefore, kingmakerless. (Even the ol’ T-Swift / Beyoncé / Springsteen / Bad Bunny combo came up empty in 2024.) Bernie is easily the kingmakeriest Dem these days, and he’s been flexing his muscle with real impact – though it’s hard to say how much at this point.
The only 2028er who even comes close – and perhaps the exception that proves the rule – is AOC, who has been intentional about wielding her sway with a dedicated fan base to maximize impact; she endorsed NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani & Adelita Grijalva (AZ-07) in the final stretches of contentious primaries on bright blue terrain, and cut the highest-testing ad for GAVIN NEWSOM’s redistricting initiative.
No other presidential hopeful can move the needle much for candidates outside their home turf. And yet, the endorsements are flying. Why? They’re not leveraging their power to move voters to their endorsees; they’re leveraging the endorsees to tell voters who they are – and make some new friends along the way.
~
These dynamics are best illustrated by RO KHANNA – the most strategic and prolific endorser of the likely 2028 field to date. Last week, Khanna endorsed Tom Steyer for CA Governor thusly:
“Tom is for taxing billionaires like himself. He’s for getting all corporate money out of Sacramento, and he is for passing single-payer [health care]... That’s the cause I care deeply about… We need a bold progressive agenda…”
See what he did there? But Ro didn’t just wade into his home-state Gov race last week; he endorsed a slate of 14 other Ds around the country, up and down the ballot, who represent his values – which builds on a dozen others I’ve tracked this year.
Like Khanna himself, most of his endorsees are young, progressive economic populists – though it’s not a monolith. Some are underdog leftists in very blue primaries; others, contenders in key battlegrounds, or working class warriors in ruby red states.
In nearly every case, he’s banking good will from local leaders and activists who match his politics, and generating local press clips – which is good, cuz he’s not exactly a household name. Which is to say, there probably weren’t a ton of swing voters waiting on the little-known CA Rep’s advice in, say, PA’s Lehigh County Exec race.
One of Ro’s cross-country, anti-establishment endorsees is a charismatic oyster farmer with a legion of devotees and a history of very bad posts and tattoo choices…
~
There may be no better proxy for the Democratic Party’s cold civil war than the ME-Sen primary, which pits battle-tested (and Schumer-recruited) governor Janet Mills – who’d turn 85 during this Senate term – against Graham Platner, a leftist millennial veteran who wants to smash the political machine, and likely also the Wayback Machine.
When the Oysterman Oppo Onslaught was unleashed, Khanna doubled down on his support, lambasting the DSCC for trying to destroy him. For her part, Mills just earned endorsements from two fellow Govs from the Get Shit Done wing of the party: ANDY BESHEAR & GRETCHEN WHITMER. Many are steering clear of the Maine mess to fight on cleaner fronts.
A Minnesota-nicer version of the ideological showdown is playing out in the MN-Sen primary. Lefties like ELIZABETH WARREN, CHRIS MURPHY, CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, & others in the newly minted Senate ‘Fight Club’ have endorsed Bernie-backed Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan; centrists are lining up behind Rep. Angie Craig, a deft political operator who eschews partisan dogmatism.
Interestingly, neither RO KHANNA nor AOC have endorsed in the race. Even more interestingly, weeks after being labeled a “corporate Democrat” by Flanagan, Angie Craig just introduced a bill with AOC to crack down on corporations using Trump’s tariffs as a pretense for price gouging… As I said, Craig is a deft political operator!
On Wednesday, PETE BUTTIGIEG endorsed Angie Craig, joining RUBEN GALLEGO, TAMMY BALDWIN, ANDY KIM, & more. It’s his first high-profile primary play of 2025, though not his first strategic engagement. He stumped for fellow NatSec pragmatists Mikie Sherill & Abigail Spanberger; he backed Aaron Ford (NV-Gov), Levar Stoney (VA-Lt. Gov), & Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin.
And on 9/4, Pete endorsed Barbara Drummond to be Mayor of Mobile, AL, where the outgoing R had carried 63% of the vote in 2021. Other heavyweights followed Buttigieg ahead of the 9/23 runoff: CORY BOOKER on 9/12; RAPHAEL WARNOCK on 9/22; KAMALA HARRIS just hours before polls opened.
Barbara Drummond ultimately fell just short, losing 51%-49%. With dynamics that mirrored the TN-07 special – a highly nationalized near-loss in a GOP strong-hold – AL.com wondered whether soliciting all those out-of-state Democrats’ endorsements had backfired. Drummond pushed back:
“I didn’t go out and ask anyone. All those endorsements that came in are from people who looked at this race and knew it was winnable, and they endorsed freely. It wasn’t because I was asking anyone to endorse me because I was not.”
You see, Barbara Drummond was not even asking for endorsements. And to be clear, I don’t think they sank her candidacy. I doubt they had much of any impact on the race. That was never really the point.
Quick Hits
85 Days. On Monday, progressive firebrand JASMINE CROCKETT will announce whether she’s running for TX-Sen, which would send shockwaves through an already-wild race; prediction markets have her as a slight favorite to win the primary. One thing that’s flying under the radar: the primary is on 3/3. That would give her 22 fewer days than Kamala had for her shotgun WH bid. If she runs, it’ll be a fascinating test of how much campaigns still matter in the attention economy, with implications for how 2028ers allocate resources.
The two sides of being in Trump’s crosshairs. It’s a twisted reality, but since Trump accused MARK KELLY & ELISSA SLOTKIN of sedition for urging troops to refuse unlawful orders, the pair of potential 2028ers have seen two things surge: death threats and – it feels glib to say, but – their own political stock. They’ve been ubiquitous media presences, comporting themselves admirably in menacing circumstances, earning an outpouring of support in the process.
Buzzy profiles.
Politico’s Dasha Burns wrote up GRETCHEN WHITMER’s surprisingly cozy relationship with Trump – with participation from Whitmer’s team – which can be read as either an affirmation of her theory of politics, or more evidence that she’s not running in 2028.
The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta has a must-read long-read on JOSH SHAPIRO, which paints him as a ruthlessly ambitious, gifted political athlete who has earned the ire of many PA Dems en route to the top, in addition to admirers.
Liz Goodwin & Yasmeen Abutaleb (WaPo)’s pre-Thanksgiving dive into AOC’s rise & 2028 deliberations was read by many as a sign she’s eying a Senate run over a presidential, but I continue to believe she’s genuinely undecided and will ultimately do the latter.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE BIG, BEAUTIFUL TRACKER
GAVIN NEWSOM’s sitdown with Andrew Ross Sorkin at the DealBook Summit… WES MOORE on The Pivot Podcast with former NFL players Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor & Channing Crowder… MARK KELLY’s fiery press conference on Trump & Hegseth’s efforts to intimidate him.
Time Capsule
Finally, I’ve come across so many gems from the archives as I dig into the folks shaping the party’s future, so I’m adding a new time capsule section to share the joy with you…
To kick it off, here’s then-Lt. Gov. GAVIN NEWSOM hosting Elon Musk on his short-lived weekly talk show on Current TV in 2012.
