The 2028 election remains a bit far away, although it wouldn’t be politics if some people in the party out of power weren’t thinking about who could emerge as the party’s next standard bearer. And after all, the midterm elections are next year, with the presidential campaign getting underway not long after that.
A new poll from Atlas Intel looks at who might have an early lead in the 2028 race.
“Provided that these were the candidates, who would you vote for in the Democratic primaries for the 2028 presidential election?” the poll asks, and the answers are somewhat wide open.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is in the lead, with 31.5 percent support among Democratic voters when the question was asked. In second place is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), with 19.4 percent, while in third place is the 2024 Democratic nominee, former Vice President Kamala Harris, with 16.6 percent. Also in double digits is Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) with 10.4 percent.
🔵 New – 2028 primary poll
🔵 Buttigieg 32% (+4)
🔵 AOC – 19% (+3)
🔵 Harris – 17% (-7)
🔵 Booker 10%
🔵 Newsom 7%
🔵 Shapiro 5%
🔵 Whitmer 4%
🔵 Warnock 1%Atlasintel #A+ pic.twitter.com/m9f3UBOR9m
— Political Polls (@PpollingNumbers) May 30, 2025
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After them is California Gov. Gavin Newsom with 7.1 percent, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro with 4.8 percent, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer with 3.7 percent. An additional 3.6 percent answered “none of the above,” while Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) got 1.4 percent. Several other candidates, including Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, as well as sportscaster Stephen A. Smith, received less than 1 percent.
On the Republican side, meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance leads with 37.3 percent among Republican voters, followed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio with 18.7 percent, and “none of the above” coming in third place with 15.6 percent. Donald Trump Jr. comes in after that with 8.8 percent, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with 8 percent.
Let us be clear that none of these people are declared candidates for president. This is just one poll, and at this early stage of the game, such polls largely depend on name recognition. They are subject to change once the campaign gets underway, which is over a year away.
Also, the AtlasIntel poll is something of an outlier, and Race to the White House publishes a polling average of the potential 2028 Democratic hopefuls. That one is led by Harris, with an average of 24 percent, followed by Buttigieg with 20 percent and Ocasio-Cortez with 14.1 percent. Booker, Newsom, Shapiro, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz follow them.
Photo courtesy of Political Tribune media library.
