Dem
47
GOP
53
We had an item on Tuesday about Kamala Harris' future, and whether she'll try for the presidency again, or if she will "settle" for the governorship of California as the capstone of her political career.
Yesterday, Politico had a story about how the members of the DNC are definitely open to the idea. Some of them are overtly supportive, while others are noncommittal. None of them are an outright "no," which, admittedly, may or may not be instructive. That is to say, the next election is nearly 4 years away, which is many, many lifetimes in politics. Anyone savvy enough to end up on the DNC is savvy enough not to show their cards right now, until the lay of the land is much clearer.
In any event, we pass this along because some people, among them Kamala Harris, obviously think she might be able to make another run. And to that end, we need to start prepping for our planned series on potential Democratic presidential candidates, which will commence in January. We will eventually do the Republicans, too, but will probably have to wait longer on that, because it's a little harder to know who will, and will not, still be standing in 2-3 years.
About a month ago, we asked readers to help us compile a list of potential Democratic candidates. Here, in alphabetical order, are the 60 names that exercise produced (we included everyone who was nominated by at least three readers):
State Rep. Stacey Abrams (D-GA)
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY)
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (MI)
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (NY)
Actor George Clooney (CA)
Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC)
Businessman Mark Cuban (TX)
Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY)
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)
Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI)
UAW President Shawn Fain (IN)
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA)
Sen. Al Franken (DFL-MN)
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ)
Actor Tom Hanks (CA)
Vice President Kamala Harris (CA)
Gov. Maura Healey (D-MA)
Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ)
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
Actor Dwayne Johnson (FL)
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA)
Gov. Laura Kelly (D-KS)
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ)
Coach Steve Kerr (CA)
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA)
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (DFL-MN)
Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D-New Orleans)
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM)
State Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-MI)
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD)
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT)
Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ)
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
Labor leader Dan Osborn (NE)
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA)
Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK)
Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO)
Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL)
Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo (RI)
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD)
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV)
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA)
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA)
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI)
Adm. James G. Stavridis (FL)
Gov. Josh Stein (D-NC)
Actor Jon Stewart (NY)
Musician Taylor Swift (TN)
Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT)
Gov. Tim Walz (DFL-MN)
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA)
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI)
And now, we must ask for your help again. Here's a ballot where you can choose (up to) 10 candidates you think are most likely to get the Democratic nomination (with 1 being very most likely) and (up to) 10 candidates you would most like to be the nominee (with 1 being the one you want the very most). These votes will determine the order in which we write up the candidates next year. (Z)