Since the morning after the 2024 election, I’ve been totally fixated on the question of where the Democratic Party goes from here, and who can lead it there.

I found myself compulsively deep-diving into all of the party’s most promising talents, closely tracking how each was navigating the post-election landscape, and then putting together a Big Board of my top 75ish 2028 contenders, complete with Madden-style ratings for key attributes like ‘political athleticism’ and ‘attention capital.’ (Stay tuned…)

I know this sounds insane. It definitely is. And you may – quite justifiably – be asking: Why are you focused on 2028 horse race BS when there’s so much at stake in 2025 and 2026? I keep coming back to three things I believe to be true:

1. The 2028 primary is already well underway, and it’s shaping many of today’s biggest fights.
   

2. It’s not a horse race; it’s a proxy fight over the very form, function, and future of the Democratic Party.
   
   

3. Whoever inherits Trump’s institutional carnage will have a singular opportunity to build a new, better American democracy. 

So I’m convinced this really does matter. I’ve embraced the obsession. Over the past 9 months, I’ve consumed thousands of hours of media hits by dozens of top Dems across hundreds of platforms – now I’m trying to spare anyone else that plight…

I’m tracking everything, so you don’t have to.

It’s been an enlightening endeavor – and also, a literal nightmare trying to monitor all of this in our increasingly atomized media ecosystem. Really, you don’t understand how many podcasts there are, and how many people want to be president.

I figured if there’s no one-stop where this stuff is being synthesized, I might as well be the guy that does it. So I built one Big, Beautiful Tracker cataloguing nearly every longer-form media appearance I can find from (20 for now) top contenders since the 2024 election, along with noteworthy travel, fundraising data, and more. 

Each week, I hope to surface interesting things flying under the radar in this space, and offer fresh insights informed by my manic consumption. For the first newsletter, I’m pulling out 5 clips you may not have seen that I found illuminating:

1. On the popular business podcast Diary of a CEO, GAVIN NEWSOM recounted the most indelible moment of his childhood: His mother – frustrated by his inability to overcome his dyslexia – telling him, “It’s okay to be average.” You could feel Newsom’s enduring pain – and see the roots of his defiant ambition – as he told this story publicly for the first time.
   
   

2. At a rally for Zohran Mamdani, AOC made clear she didn’t care if endorsing the young firebrand jeopardized her own career, and tore into establishment Dems, arguing we’d never move past Trump if we kept electing the same people that got us here in the first place. She was making the case for Zohran – but also the case that would define her own candidacy. And it was quite compelling.
   
   

3. On Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant, PETE BUTTIGIEG opened up about coming out, using an anecdote about one woman’s well-meaning reaction to make a broader point about meeting people where they are. In one fell swoop, Pete was able to gently rebuke Dems’ penchant for lecturing, showcase his own empathy and big-tent vision, and humanize himself in a more affecting way than he could 5 years ago.
   

4. In a discussion about Democrats’ struggles with Latino men on The Latino Vote podcast with Mike Madrid & Chuck Rocha, RUBEN GALLEGO relayed a story about DC campaign consultants trying to nix a boxing watch party he threw, which proved a huge success. In a sea of overly-scripted Dems, Gallego’s gritty authenticity is a powerful differentiator.
   

5. On The People’s Cabinet with Dan Koh, frequent cable news guest CHRIS MURPHY explained that at this point, he largely does TV hits for the express purpose of repackaging the clips across social platforms – a sharp commentary on the diffuseness of the current media landscape, which gave birth to this newsletter.

DNC begins process of setting 2028 calendar on TUESDAY, as top Ds blitz early states

In a little-noticed interview earlier this month, DNC Chair Ken Martin told NewsNation the party would begin discussing the 2028 primary calendar at their Summer 2025 DNC Meeting in Minneapolis. Axios’s Alex Thompson added new details this morning about how Martin has overhauled the powerful panel in charge of this process – the DNC’s Rules & Bylaws Committee (RBC) – and the fight that’s brewing behind the scenes.

According to a copy of the DNC’s Summer Meeting schedule, that RBC meeting is set for Tuesday, August 26.

This may sound esoteric, but the order and rules of these contests can shape the entire race. Just ask Joe Biden, who upended the calendar to head off serious challengers in 2024, pushing South Carolina to the front after finishing 4th, 5th, and a distant 2nd in the first three states in 2020.

Because Biden’s gambit to forestall competition succeeded, those changes faded from public consciousness. But now, it all matters bigly – so here’s a quick rundown of what happened, where it’s headed, and who’s already visiting likely early states:

In 2022, the DNC’s RBC was conducting an extensive open process to set a new calendar, and 20 states were vying for early status. At the 11th hour, Biden weighed in, demanding the end of caucuses (which favor more progressive candidates), and strong-arming the party to adopt his preferred calendar: SC → NH + NV → GA → MI. 

• While IA accepted its fate, NH – whose first-in-the-nation status is enshrined in state law – rebuffed the DNC, holding an unsanctioned January primary.
  
  

• SC voted on Feb. 3, followed by NV on Feb. 6, MI on Feb. 27, and then Super Tuesday on March 5. GA couldn’t move up, as state Rs had the authority.
  
  

• Now, the RBC is kicking off an open (for real this time) process to set the 2028 calendar, and the old early states are already racing for the front of the line. But Iowa’s clout is waning, as it just lost its only seat on the panel, while NH, NV, & SC each gained a 2nd one. Regardless, top Ds are showing up:
  
  

  • SOUTH CAROLINA: Gavin Newsom (8-stop trip through rural SC), Andy Beshear (met w/local leaders in 3 cities), & Ro Khanna (2 town halls in red districts + visits to local Dems, NAACP, & a black church) all made multi-day swings. Tim Walz & Wes Moore spoke at the SCDP’s Blue Palmetto Dinner.
    
    

  • IOWA: Ruben Gallego toured the State Fair, a meatpacking plant, & held town halls last week. Tim Walz & Pete Buttigieg each held town halls this spring. Rahm Emanuel is headlining a fish fry next month.
    
    

  • NEW HAMPSHIRE: JB Pritzker keynoted NHDP’s McIntyre-Shaheen dinner. Amy Klobuchar campaigned for NH-Sen hopeful Chris Pappas in July. Ruben Gallego heads there tomorrow for Politics & Eggs + events w/Pappas & Maggie Goodlander.
    
    

  • NEVADA: Ro Khanna held town halls in Vegas & Reno this month. AOC hit Vegas on her Fighting Oligarchy tour with Bernie in March. Pete Buttigieg hasn’t visited but did endorse Aaron Ford for governor.
    
    

• Meanwhile, everyone has been sleeping on Michigan – notably home to Gretchen Whitmer, Elissa Slotkin, & (kinda) Pete Buttigieg – which has gotten little love from top Ds, save for Wes Moore keynoting the Detroit NAACP’s flagship dinner.
  
  

• As Axios’s Thompson reported, MI will remain in the early state mix. But I’d be shocked if it were first – that would require passing bipartisan legislation to amend the 2023 law Dems passed to move up last cycle, which set future presidential primaries for the 4th Tuesday in February. That sets up a 2/21/28 contest, and if I had to bet, NH, SC, and NV will vote before them.

Anyways, motives aside, Biden’s complaints about the un-democratic-ness of caucuses and the whiteness of IA + NH had merit. Indeed, the DNC was working to address those very issues before Joe demanded the first two primaries be Scranton and an Amtrak car. They’ll weigh these factors along with others like regional and economic diversity, competitiveness, and feasibility.

As this fight plays out over the next year, candidates will be privately and publicly working the refs for a calendar that suits them. To wit, in a recent radio interview, Amy Klobuchar endorsed NH – the erstwhile capital of Klobmentum – voting first.

This promises to be a long and convoluted process, but we’ll know a little bit more after Tuesday’s RBC meeting, and I’ll keep you posted with any key updates.

Other interesting things I caught this month…

• Slotkin wants to kill presidential pardons. At a town hall, Elissa Slotkin was asked about limiting presidential pardon power, and – after pausing to consider the question in real-time – came out for eliminating it altogether. It was a fascinating moment, and a stance I’ve not seen anyone else stake out.
  
  

• Pritzker’s other big hosting win. JB Pritzker got much attention for hosting Texas Dems this month. But for his presidential hopes, the bigger development may have been the MLB awarding its 2027 All-Star Game to Wrigley Field, giving Pritzker a chance to host a marquee national event that transcends politics and show off Chicago in the leadup to the first 2028 primary contests.
  
  

• Kamala’s unpublicized speech was… quite good? The former VP quietly dropped by a Teamsters National Black Caucus event last weekend to thank them for their work; A TNBC member posted her full remarks, and it struck me as her best performance in a while – reminiscent of some effective union speeches she did shortly after Biden’s exit.
  
  

• The Great 2026 Dilemma. A new challenger is hitting Josh Shapiro over his national ambitions. Pritzker is playing defense on the same charge after launching his reelection. Wes Moore is trying to head it off by insisting he’s not running for president. And Tim Walz – who said he’d rule out a 2028 bid if he runs for reelection – can’t decide what to do. Navigating this for the next 15 months is going to be a disaster.

By the numbers

If you made it all the way down here, thank you for reading my inaugural newsletter. Let me know what you thought, and I’ll try to do better next time!