Gretchen Whitmer’s Policy Blitz

Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer notched a slew of impressive victories in her first year as governor with a Democratic-controlled legislature,
signing progressive legislation on abortion rights, worker rights, voter rights, gun safety, health care and the environment. In 2023, Whitmer could boast that she moved state policy from conservative to liberal farther and faster than any other sitting governor in the country.

And she started going national, launching a new “Fight Like Hell” political action committee to fund Democratic candidates in the 2024 election. The first set of endorsements went to eight House incumbents, including Rep. Steven Horsford from the early primary state of Nevada.

Next year, Joe Biden will be visiting Michigan frequently, touting his partnership with Whitmer to help the auto industry benefit from the electric vehicle transition — a priority for both, but one that is not without political risk. Pressure will be on Whitmer, the only 2028 prospect serving as national co-chair of the Biden-Harris campaign, to keep the state blue.

Andy Beshear’s and Roy Cooper’s Survival Skills

Democratic governors with Republican legislatures can’t sign nearly as much progressive legislation, but mere survival provides cache. Andy Beshear punched his ticket to the 2028 bracket by winning reelection in deep red Kentucky, particularly with the help of a successful abortion rights message.

North Carolina’s two-term Gov. Roy Cooper had a rough year, after a Democratic state House member defected in April and gave Republicans a supermajority to override Cooper’s veto of a 12-week abortion ban. However, just before that happened, following years of battling resistant Republicans,
Cooper finally wrangled a bipartisan Medicaid expansion bill, extending health insurance coverage to an estimated 600,000 people — not a bad capstone as he wraps his final year in office in 2024.

Wes Moore’s and Josh Shapiro’s Fast Start

Two new Democratic governors were able to quickly plant seeds for a future presidential bid in 2023. Maryland’s Wes Moore, only the third African American in U.S. history to be elected governor, may be the only 2028 prospect who already has crafted a signature slogan:
“Service Will Save Us.” On the power of that message, Moore swiftly enacted the
first state-run public service year program for recent high school graduates, who can get paid for a year of community service before enrolling in college or pursuing other work.

In Pennsylvania, the Republican-controlled state Senate somewhat slowed Josh Shapiro’s roll though he still found ways to make waves. By executive order, he implemented a form of
automatic voter registration, cheering voter rights advocates. He won national praise for the
speedy repair of the collapsed bridge on Interstate 95. And his denouncement of University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill’s congressional testimony on antisemitism intensified pressure on her to resign, a move which may alienate some Democrats but endear him to others.

Gavin Newsom’s and J.B. Pritzker’s PAC Attacks

California Gov. Gavin Newsom attracted the most attention of any 2028 Democratic prospect, having seized the unofficial post of chief surrogate for the Biden-Harris reelection campaign. Through his many media appearances, including his November Fox News debate with DeSantis, Newsom has burnished a reputation in the past year for punchy, data-laden responses to tough charges against the Biden record.

Moreover, he has built a national political action committee, Campaign for Democracy, with a focus on funding Democratic candidates and party machinery in red states.

Yet Newsom also said something this year that could end any 2028 campaign before it begins. During a September appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, Chuck Todd asked him about his fellow northern Californian Kamala Harris, “You can’t imagine ever having to run against each other?” Newsom replied without equivocation, “Of course not. By definition. Won’t happen.”

Newsom appears to grasp that competing with Harris for Bay Area donors and mansplaining to Democratic voters why they pick him over the first woman of color vice president would make for a decidedly unpleasant primary. But his quasi-Shermanesque statement leaves Newsom with two unpalatable options for running in 2028: Break his word, or cajole Harris out of the race.

Another big blue state governor with a newly minted national political action committee is Illinois’ J.B. Pritzker. Think Big America, which appears to be
solely funded by the billionaire governor, is designed to help Pritzker position himself as an effective advocate for abortion rights following the fall of Roe v. Wade.

Through the PAC and his own bank account,
Pritzker spent heavily on Ohio’s constitutional amendment referendum, Virginia’s state legislative elections and a pivotal Wisconsin Supreme Court election — all successful efforts to directly or indirectly help protect and restore reproductive freedoms. He also gave $1 million to a Nevada operation working to put an abortion rights constitutional amendment on the 2024 state ballot.

John Fetterman’s “Reverse Bulworth”

After winning office while recovering from a severe stroke and beginning his first term hospitalized for severe depression, Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman returned to the Senate this year and pulled a “Bulworth” — or perhaps more accurately, a reverse Bulworth. In the
1998 cult classic movie starring Warren Beatty, fed-up California senator Jay Bulworth hires an assassin to kill himself. With nothing left to lose, he throws away the canned speeches, awkwardly raps about how corporations buy off politicians and the media, and dares to praise socialism.

Fetterman, in contrast, appears to be loving life — gleefully speaking his mind and mocking political conventions, even when it upsets his supporters on the left.

He squarely sided with Israel following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and is encouraging Democrats to accept a compromise on border security. He’s the loudest advocate, in either party, for expelling fellow Democrat Bob Menendez from the Senate for allegedly acting as an agent for Egypt. In a December interview with The New York Times, he
brusquely distanced himself from his reputation as a progressive, saying, “I don’t feel like I’ve left the label; it’s just more that it’s left me.”

The flak he’s taken from some progressives has only helped Fetterman establish a reputation for independence and straight talk. And the often cheeky politician remains a draw on the Democratic campaign circuit. In November, he spoke to a
sold-out crowd at an annual Iowa Democratic Party fundraiser in Altoona, where he made a forceful case for Biden’s reelection.

Fetterman still has choppy speech patterns following his stroke, and Democrats might be reluctant to nominate someone with noticeable health issues after rolling the dice in 2024 with the octogenarian Biden. But by 2028, the burly swing stater is likely to be one of the nation’s most recognizable Democrats.