Some Democrats are mulling whether the party’s best chance at winning back the White House is to pick a “straight, white Christian man” in 2028 for the top of the ticket.
Having lost twice to Donald Trump with female candidates for president, Democratic strategists have echoed concerns voiced last year by former first lady Michelle Obama: America “is not ready for a woman.”
Behind closed doors, several Democratic strategists have bluntly said some form of, “It has to be a white guy,” according to Axios.
“There is a fear — and I actually don't think this is just a grass-tops fear, I think you'd hear it from voters, too — that a woman has now lost twice,” an unnamed Democratic strategist told the outlet. “So not discounting the hundreds of other times men have lost … but is it the right thing to nominate a woman?”
Former first lady Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in the 2016 presidential election, though she won the popular vote, and former Vice President Kamala Harris was defeated by the Republican in 2024.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is considered one of the top contenders to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, but said he has not yet made up his mind about running.
Other names that frequently top the list for potential 2028 candidates, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, are both Jewish.
Last November, Obama poured cold water on whispers of her running in 2028. “Don’t even look at me about running, because you all are lying. You’re not ready for a woman,” she said. “You know, we got a lot of growing up to do, and there’s still, sadly, a lot of men who do not feel like they can be led by a woman.”
Other Democrats have since agreed with her, including South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn. “Michelle Obama is absolutely correct,” he told NBC News last year. “If you look at the history, we demonstrated that we are not ready.”
Clyburn added, though, that the party should not stop the pursuit of electing a female president. “We may be in a dark moment as it relates to women serving as president, but we may be in that moment just before dawn when a woman will serve,” he added.
Harris wrote in her memoir 107 Days that the party was “already asking a lot” to “accept a Black woman married to a Jewish man,” and so she decided not to move forward with her first pick for vice president, originally then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. He “would have been an ideal partner — if I were a straight, white man,” Harris said of Buttigieg, who is gay.
Harris, who has yet to rule out a 2028 comeback bid, said in December that she believes “the country is ready” for a woman to become president.
The other female Democrat possibly in the running is New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has been railing against the Trump administration in demonstrations across the country with Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s name has also been floated.
Newsom topped a recent YouGov poll of who Americans would like to see as the party’s nominee in the 2028 presidential election.
According to the survey, 19 percent of Americans said they’d rather see Newsom as the Democratic nominee in 2028, though Harris was hot on his heels at 18 percent, while 13 percent said Buttigieg and 12 percent said Ocasio-Cortez.
Prediction market sites Kalshi and Polymarket also have Newsom as the favorite to be the next Democratic nominee.
Other Democratic strategists have suggested that voters want conventionally attractive candidates on the ballot, according to The Bulwark.
The “hotness” of candidates had come up during conversations with Democratic strategists and former officials, according to the report.
“It’s easier to elect hot people,” said former Biden White House staffer Yemisi Egbewole. “America is a superficial nation, and we want our politicians—especially those that are representing us on an international stage, as the number-one world power—to be hot, to look good.”
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