Even as Democrats across the country continue to revel in their sweeping midterm election victories, politicians, donors and campaign strategists have quickly begun looking ahead to what is widely expected to be a crowded and contentious 2028 presidential campaign.
Would-be Democratic presidential candidates have spread across the globe over the past week, headlining events aimed at lifting their national profiles, appearing with foreign leaders, schmoozing donors and scouting for political talent at happy hours with ambitious campaign operatives.
In Denver, at least eight potential candidates gathered for a three-day conference aptly titled “What’s Next.” Along the California coast, Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona led journalists and social media influencers on a tour of the aircraft carrier he served on as a U.S. Navy pilot. And Gov. Gavin Newsom of California appeared at a United Nations climate summit in Turkey, where he told Turkish news media that he planned to decide in late January if he would run for president in 2028 — the most specific timeline he has offered yet.
While no one has formally entered the presidential race, the passing of the midterm elections has given Democrats license to include themselves in increasingly public discussions about who is going to run and what they would bring to a contest that could include more than two dozen candidates.
“We have got to have an ideological conversation within our family, within our party,” Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania said in an interview. “Whatever comes in the future, I’m going to be a part of that.”
The conference in Denver, a lavish gathering in the city’s River North Art District, amounted to an opening salvo from centrists to influence the direction of their party, as Democrats continued to chart their path out of the political wilderness and, they hoped, into the White House. The event was part candidate cattle call and part speed dating for potential campaign staff.
There were framed Art Deco-style posters on the walls for the event’s featured speakers — one was just the word “Raimondo” six times in lowercase blue and purple font, referring to Gina Raimondo, the former commerce secretary. Some attendees wore hats that read “Tax and Spend Liberal.”
In the final hours, the conference was upended by a nationwide ground stop that disrupted the travel plans of some of the biggest rising stars in the party. But between drinking cocktails and rebooking flights, the jockeying for the party’s future direction was in full force.
High-wattage midterm winners like Senator-elect James Talarico of Texas and Governor-elect Rob Sand of Iowa took victory laps and urged fellow Democrats to follow their leads. Lesser-known members of Congress with high ambitions spoke about their hopes of building their own national profiles.
Just about everybody talked about who might run for president.
“There’s a lot of people who have basically been running for the past two years, right?” Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said in an interview. “We should accept a big primary. I think that we should not try to whittle it down.”
Ms. Slotkin said she would decide by early 2027 whether to run herself.
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, who ran for president in 2020, said in an interview that he was weighing another campaign because he wanted to try to be an uplifting and healing figure in a country that had so often found itself divided.
“There’s a realignment that’s happening that undermines what our algorithms tell us and what the 24-hour networks tell us,” said Mr. Booker, who coasted to re-election this month. “I’m going to use this platform I have for at least the next six years to talk about ending the false divides and bringing us together to what I think is a great common purpose as a country.”
And Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who is senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, described the kind of candidate that he believed that the party needed, with a profile that sounded remarkably like his own.
“We suffer not from a poverty of resources, but a moral imagination,” Mr. Warnock said in an interview. “I think the American people want someone in this moment who will help us all to believe that we can do big things in this country.”
Even those who had not been on the national radar, like Representative Joe Neguse of Colorado, urged reporters not to count them out for a presidential run.
“Insofar as one has a microphone and is willing to share with your colleagues and the country those new ideas, I suspect that there will be an audience to hear it,” Mr. Neguse said in an interview.
Mr. Newsom, in an interview before his overseas trip, warned against the impulse to translate the party’s sweeping successes last week to an election two years from now.
“We tend to wildly over-read midterm elections in this country,” he said.
Yet there were plenty of jubilant Democrats happily anticipating that their 2026 victories would lead to 2028 triumphs. Mr. Talarico, in a speech at the Denver convention on Thursday, told the audience, “We are within striking distance of a supermajority, and a supermajority requires a super agenda.”
Still others wanted to force a more divisive conversation about who should be Senate majority leader. Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland drew a large crowd on Friday morning as he made his pitch to oust Senator Chuck Schumer of New York.
“Voters fired Trump and his policies of corruption, the war and high costs, but they haven’t fully hired the Democrats,” Mr. Van Hollen said in an interview. “We need to earn the voters’ trust, and to do that we need to end business as usual, attack the status quo and elect new leadership.”
The Denver gathering was hosted by a new group called Majority Democrats, which hails from the party’s moderate wing and is focused on fostering a new generation of leaders. Its biggest donors include Stephen and Sue Mandel, hedge fund billionaires; the former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; and James and Kathryn Murdoch.
The vibes were nearly euphoric at the happy hours and parties, including one for Democrats from the first six states on the Democratic Party’s 2028 primary calendar. Senior aides to would-be presidential candidates mingled with the sort of people whose endorsements would soon be sought after.
Don Scott, the speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, said he had already heard from seven prospective Democratic presidential candidates. Ms. Slotkin said at least a dozen potential candidates had called her to talk about Michigan.
“If you want to be president, you gotta come to the mother of presidents,” Mr. Scott said. “They’re going to have to touch some of that dirt in Virginia.”
Some top contenders, like Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois and Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, did not attend the Denver event but sent top aides.
Mr. Kelly skipped the conference to highlight his career as a Navy pilot and NASA astronaut. After visiting his former aircraft carrier in San Diego, Mr. Kelly went to Los Angeles to visit his former space shuttle, the Endeavour, which is now on display at a new exhibit.
“I just don’t have a typical background,” Mr. Kelly said in an interview, acknowledging that it could be both a detriment and an asset if he decided to run for president.
David Axelrod, who directed Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns and has since become one of the party’s wise men, noted the unpredictability of the coming campaign.
“This is the first election I can remember where the field is wide open and there’s no front-runner,” he said. “We have a whole new cast of characters.”
