Current Affairs Of Pakistan & World: Dem 2028ers: Don’t mess this up

Dem 2028ers: Don’t mess this up

Nov 08, 2026

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With help from Eli Okun and Ali Bianco

Good Sunday morning. This is Irie Sentner, closing out a loooooong news week with a dispatch from Crooked Con, where the libbing out was at level 500. Get in touch.

DRIVING THE DAY

Democrats, ecstatic off Tuesday’s blue tsunami, are already dreaming of riding it to the White House in two years. But the party’s presidential bench has a message to everyone hopped up on hopium: We’ve got to work for it.

Playbook caught up with six oft-speculated Democratic 2028ers on Saturday at Crooked Media’s “Crooked Con,” the first major national Democratic gathering since the party’s historic midterm sweep. That slate of politicos — Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) — differ in ideology, geography and background. But they coalesced around a common plea to their colleagues and their base: Voters trusted us this time; now we ought to deliver.

Democrats are flying high after their landslide victory that saw them flip at least seven Senate seats, including multiple in states President Donald Trump won in 2024 by double digits. Pundits and strategists in the party are talking about a 2028 environment that could see an expanded presidential map and even a durable Senate majority.

But in conversation after conversation, the elected officials who may vie to be at the top of that presidential ticket cautioned that Democrats now have to prove to previously red states that their politics are effective — particularly on bringing down costs.

“We don't have time to sit there and just celebrate what happened on Tuesday,” Moore said. “People need us to start this work now and start addressing the things that they wanted to address.”

That work will begin in Congress, where Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are expected to continue leading the party in the Senate and House. Both are institutionalist, moderate Democrats from New York City — and some potential 2028ers openly wondered if they’re the right leaders for the moment.

“In the Senate Democratic Caucus, we should not have a coronation,” said Van Hollen, who told Playbook he would make his decision “early next year” on if he’ll run for president. “We should have a full Senate Democratic caucus decision before we pick any leader, and that should include a clear game plan for how we’re going to deliver for the American people.”

Raphael Warnock predicts a blue Mississippi

In the latest episode of On the Road, Sen. Raphael Warnock sits down with Jonathan Martin in Atlanta to make his case for investing in Mississippi, South Carolina and other Southern states as Democrats look to build a lasting majority.

Watch now.

Slotkin echoed those comments, telling Playbook that Tuesday’s results indicate “there’s a pretty clear mandate that people want a new generation [of leadership], and they want to know what the plan is to actually help their lives.” She said she would not back Schumer as majority leader “until I see a plan” — and notably declined to rule out a Senate leadership bid.

Would running for Senate preclude her from jumping into the presidential race? “All of this is an open conversation,” Slotkin said. “I just want to be a part of a new generation of leadership that does something different with the expression of power, and I think there’s lots of different ways that that can go.”

Asked about the path to a Democratic victory in 2028, Shapiro, the governor of the country’s largest swing state, told reporters: “The most important thing now is governing and governing effectively and making people's lives better. That is the responsibility we now all have to govern.”

Kelly, another battle-tested Democrat, said the path to winning the White House only opens up by “delivering” in the next two years. Democrats must “do something to improve the lives of people that are really having a hard time right now,” he said.

A straw poll taken at Crooked Con shows just how vast the field of potential presidential candidates could be — and how difficult it could be for anyone to lay claim and clear the field. A total of 990 respondents were asked to give their first choice for the Democratic 2028 nominee, yielding 37 total names. The winner? Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, with 380 total votes, good for 38.4%. The next closest was Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at 16.6%.

Crow, who served as co-chair of the DCCC’s “Red to Blue” battleground program and is seen as a potential Senate candidate or presidential contender, similarly sees Tuesday as the beginning of the road.

“We won in red territory. We convinced folks who haven't voted for Democrats in a long time — some of whom have never voted for Democrats — to vote for a Democratic candidate,” Crow told Playbook. But he noted it would be a “mistake” to view those votes as a stamp of approval for the Democratic Party.

“What it actually is is them saying they're willing to give us a chance,” Crow said.

Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.

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SUNDAY BEST …

— Kansas Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton on Democrats’ priorities heading into the next Congress, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “If I spent the next two years, my first two years in the Senate in investigations, I'd be deeply disappointed. … The Democrats, if we don't figure that out and get to work on helping people, this is going to be a one-and-done blue wave.”

— House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on his priorities heading into the next Congress, on ABC’s “This Week”: “We’re committed to moving aggressively during the first 100 days of the new Congress and beyond to keep our word, to fight for an affordable America, to bring about accountability because we’ve seen unprecedented corruption that has been visited upon the American people. And we are committed to holding the crooks accountable and making sure that Congress functions like a separate and co-equal branch of government and a check and balance on an out-of-control executive branch.”

— AG Todd Blanche on Democrats’ threats of investigations, on Fox’s “Fox News Sunday”: “It is important that they exercise oversight responsibility, that Congress exercises oversight responsibility. They are not allowed to just go around threatening existing members of the administration, to go around threatening companies. And that's what President Trump is extremely worried about, and he should be.”

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6 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR

1. MUST READ: “AIPAC Built a Super PAC to Protect the Israel Consensus. This Election Helped End It,” by POLITICO Mag’s Kathy Gilsinan: AIPAC “will face a very different Capitol Hill in January. Thirteen members of the Democratic majority will arrive with American Priorities having backed their elections. And Rep. Valerie Foushee, one candidate American Priorities opposed for AIPAC’s role helping bring her to Congress in the first place, turned on her former backers before the primary even started … ‘AIPAC chose to make themselves the main character in this election, and I don’t think it went well for them,’ said Daniel Biss, who won his congressional race in a suburban Chicago district.”

2. O CANADA: After trade talks between the U.S. and Canada fell apart earlier this year, Ottawa quietly set in motion a plot to inflict maximum midterm pain on Trump and the GOP, POLITICO’s Liz Crampton and colleagues report for POLITICO Mag. “Experiencing a localized hit in their states and districts, Canadian officials knew, might be the only thing that would inspire Republicans to reconsider their acceptance of Trump’s trade policies. That leverage would only intensify as Election Day approached with affordability concerns atop voters’ minds.”

3. BAD FOR BESHEAR? Gina Hinojosa’s shocking gubernatorial victory in Texas this week has Democrats jubilant — but one unexpected loser is Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who is facing the ire of Latino operatives who say he underestimated Hinojosa as DGA chair, Playbook’s Ali Bianco reports. “His presidential campaign is over,” said Sergio Gonzalez, a Dem operative working on programs to turn out Latino voters in the midterms. In a statement, DGA executive director Meghan Meehan-Draper said: “We always believed in Gina and knew she could win.” She noted that DGA was the largest contributor to the Hinojosa campaign.

A message from OpenAI:

4. STATE OF PLAY: “Democratic thrashing redraws the map of state power,” by POLITICO’s Paul Demko: “The victories give Democrats an opening to pursue long-stalled agendas on housing costs and public education, along with new leverage in fights over taxing wealthy people and corporations and regulating artificial intelligence. Their gains will also reshape the country’s redistricting wars — and test whether Democrats can turn their backlash-fueled victories into changes voters can feel in their daily lives.”

5. JUST VANCE: Republicans’ historic defeat on Tuesday is complicating VP JD Vance’s calculus as he contemplates whether to run for president — and some of his allies have told him they don’t think any Republican could win the White House in 2028, WSJ’s Philip Wegmann and Natalie Andrews report. Other ambitious Republicans now smell blood in the water, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz all gearing up to potentially challenge the VP, WaPo’s Natalie Allison and colleagues report.

6. DISPATCH FROM THE DELTA: “How a Mississippi election came down to the clerk’s office,” by WaPo’s Robert Samuels: “A group of young Black women helped Democrat Scott Colom do the unthinkable, potentially flipping a deep-red Senate seat.”

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TALK OF THE TOWN

LIVE FROM NEW YORK — SNL’s first cold open since Election Day had a surprise appearance from Democratic Texas Sen.-elect James Talarico. “That’s senator Talafreako,” he said to boisterous cheers. “Hi America, I’m James Talarico, the guy who’s been texting you every day asking for $5.” Watch the clip

WHITE HOUSE DEPARTURE LOUNGE — White House Deputy Chief of Staff Richard Walters is leaving the Trump administration, Axios’ Alex Isenstadt reports. It’s the first big departure since President Donald Trump announced that Stephen Miller would become chief of staff starting Monday.

WEEKEND WEDDING — Cole Gibson, deputy chief of staff to Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX), and Katherine Thordahl, comms director for Letlow for Senate, got married Saturday at the Chevy Chase Club. The couple met while working on Capitol Hill. SPOTTED: Sen.-elect Julia Letlow (R-La.), Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), Rep. Russell Fry (R-S.C.), Rep.-elect Trevor Nehls (R-Texas), Saat Alety, Cody and Darcy Sims, Jackson Long, Brianna Wood, Connor Torossian, Jordan Cox, Annie Topp, Fred Davis, Annabelle Holt, Steve Ruppel, and Gigi Yoste. Pic … Another pic

OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at the Crooked Con VIP afterparty at City Tap House in Penn Quarter: Reps. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), Rep.-elect Brad Lander (D-N.Y.), Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor, Dan Pfeiffer, Lucinda Treat, Shaniqua McClendon, Nate Silver, Galen Druke, Clare Malone, Jane Coaston, Morris Katz, Jessica Tarlov, Alex Wagner, Leigh McGowan, Erin Ryan, Jesse Rodriguez, Keith Edwards, Aaron Parnas, David Pakman, Deja Foxx, Chi Ossé, Tori Taylor, Isaac James, Danielle Butterfield, Greta Carnes, Michael Kikukawa and Mally Smith.

— Adam Green hosted his fifth annual “Politics & Puns” post-election Halloween party and costume contest last night, where guest judges included Rep.-elect Chris Rabb (D-Pa.), incoming D.C. Council member Aparna Raj, Playbook’s Dasha Burns, Akayla Gardner and Jacob Wasserman. SPOTTED: Molly Ball, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Julie Bloom, Dave Kihara, Arit John, Kate Santaliz, John Hudson, Abigail Hauslohner, Igor Bobic, Zachary Schermele, Francesca Chambers, Lisa Kashinsky, Jason Beeferman, Rebecca Beitsch, Juhi Doshi, Richard Fowler, Jonathan Wald, Afton Cissell, Sara Guerrero, Emily Kassner-Marks, Karl Frisch, Anna Massoglia, Annie Weinberg, Corbin Trent, Cam Kasky, Andi Riveron, Francesca Emanuele, Zack Exley, Yasmin Radjy, Sheila Katz, Aaron Stephens, Charlotte Clymer, Kyle Margolis, Ashley Lund, Riikka Hietajärvi, James Walker, David Lunderquist and Adele Stan.

— SPOTTED on Saturday night at Juleanna Glover’s last-minute party that she labeled “Can’t quite put a finger on it as to why, but I feel like dancing”: Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Jodie Allen and Pierre de Lucy, Heather Podesta, former Mongolian Prime PM Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene, Hastie Afkhami, Joe Hack, Scott Simon, Francesca Craig, Freddie Heyward, Viet Shelton, Michael Schaffer, Catherine Bohigian, Cathy Merrill, Nneji, Lois Romano and Sven Holmes, James Astill, Terry Moran, Megan Smith and Norm Eisen.

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A message from OpenAI:

Using ChatGPT to detect wildfires early.

Detecting a wildfire early can mean the difference between containment and catastrophe. That’s what SensoRy AI is built for. After seeing the devastation of the 2018 Camp Fire in fifth grade, Ryan Honary thought there had to be a better way. He turned that thought into a science project, using a few wires, a heat detector, and a hair dryer. Five years later, that science project became SensoRy AI, a wildfire detection system that identifies fires at ignition and immediately alerts firefighters and officials. ChatGPT then translates complex sensor data into clear, actionable alerts responders can act on. Today, SensoRy AI is being used by the Laguna Beach Fire Department and deployed across three Southern California cities. It has already detected fires in the field and is expanding to more than 100 sensors across the state. Explore the story.