With three years left in President Donald Trump’s second term, half of Americans are already thinking about the 2028 presidential election, a new poll found.
Just 22 percent of U.S. adults said they’ve thought about the 2028 election “a lot” while 28 percent said they’d considered it “some,” a new CNN-SSRS poll, taken from December 4 through 7, found. Still, two-thirds said they didn’t have a specific person they’d like to see run for president, while one-third named specific candidates.
On the Republican side, 11 percent said they wanted Vice President JD Vance to launch a bid in 2028, while 2 percent named Secretary of State Marco Rubio and 1 percent named Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Another 1 percent also picked Donald Trump — who, despite his flirtations with running for a third term, is barred from running again due to the 22nd Amendment.
Across the aisle, California Governor Gavin Newsom led the pack with 6 percent mentioning him, followed by former Vice President Kamala Harris with 3 percent, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with 2 percent and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg with 1 percent.
Like Trump, 1 percent also mentioned former President Barack Obama, who equally can’t run again. That same percentage also named his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama, as well as Arizona Senator Mark Kelly.
Overall, 16 percent named a Republican or conservative candidate while 14 percent named a Democratic or liberal candidate. Only one respondent named both a Republican and a Democrat for a potential 2028 run: “Mitt Romney or Mark Kelly,” CNN reported.
The group that didn’t have a specific candidate in mind was asked what they believed the “most important traits, attributes or views” the next president should have. The responses were open-ended.
Honesty was the top response, with 12 percent saying they hoped the future president is truthful and doesn’t lie. Meanwhile, 9 percent of respondents said they wished the next president were compassionate, empathetic and cared about people.
The poll also tracked the top issues mentioned by this group. Affordability and cost-of-living ranked at the top of the list, with 6 percent of respondents mentioning it. Then followed “America first” or an interest in the U.S. over foreign affairs, which 3 percent of people said. The topics of healthcare, foreign policy, and federal spending each earned 2 percent of the mentions.
Even before reclaiming the White House, Trump has teased running for president again — even offering “Trump 2028 hats” — and some close to him have insisted he could circumvent the 22nd Amendment.
In October, Trump refused to rule out another presidential bid. “I would love to do it. I have my best numbers ever,” he told reporters on Air Force One at the time. The president’s remarks came one week after his ally Steve Bannon claimed there was a “plan” for Trump to be re-elected in 2028.
Two days after his comments on Air Force One, the president walked back on his remarks, admitting the Constitution is “pretty clear” that he wasn’t allowed to run again.
Still, Bannon doubled down. He said on his War Room show in November that he believed “you can drive a Mack truck through the 22nd Amendment,” citing a "top constitutional lawyer."
This month, Trump was still muddying the waters. At the White House Christmas party, he conceded has just a "little more than three years" left of his term — just days after he posted an AI-generated image of himself on Truth Social holding up a sign that read: “Trump 2028, yes!”
In an explosive Vanity Fair interview this month, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles explicitly said Trump wouldn’t run again, noting that he understands the 22nd Amendment prohibits him from running for a third term.
“But he sure is having fun with it,” Wiles said, adding that he knows it’s “driving people crazy.”
