While it’s still early days in the race for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, a field is already beginning to take shape. Leading the pack are former Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Polling in the single digits are New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
But there’s one name missing from all the potential candidate lists: Rahm Emanuel. And the rest of the contenders can ignore him at their peril. Though he has yet to declare his candidacy, the former Chicago mayor is already hitting the 2028 campaign trail — hard.
And people are starting to notice. Over the weekend, Politico published a feature on the intensely driven Emanuel titled Democrats Have a Rahm Emanuel Problem. “His campaign is likely to be a rolling Sister Souljah moment for the Democratic Party’s left-leaning orthodoxy, particularly on social issues. His pugilism and his critique of the party’s leftward lurch will create a gauntlet his would-be rivals will have to navigate.”
Emanuel will run as a centrist in a field of candidates who are too far left to win a nationwide election. For that reason, he may be the only Democrat capable of defeating a Republican.
The same group of donors who backed Bill Clinton in the 1990s and Hillary Clinton in 2008 and 2016 is still active and would almost certainly support his campaign. He would likely be backed by the Obamas as well.
Emanuel is regarded as a formidable debater and has been described “as a ‘ruthless’ and ‘sharp-edged’ political brawler.” He would probably roll right over Harris and Newsom in a primary debate.
The key question is whether the party’s progressive base will accept him or turn away over his rejection of woke politics. Another potential obstacle is his Jewish faith.
That said, they would in all likelihood support Emanuel over a Republican such as Vice President J.D. Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
At any rate, Emanuel is highly motivated and tenacious. He’s also manipulative and smart. And it wouldn’t be surprising to see him emerge as the nominee.
Politico reports that he has a small staff of campaign workers and he’s off touring diners and factory floors: “Rahm, 66, is already saturating old — and new — media with his small-bore policy rollouts and white papers, spending hours cultivating Beltway and battleground state reporters with on and off-the-record bull sessions, like this one at a deli amid a three day swing through Michigan in February.”
Asked by Politico if he thought Emanuel would run in 2028, former Obama adviser David Axelrod said, “He is out there throwing ideas out and traveling and being provocative and stirring the pot and moving the debate, and I don’t think it’s a prelude to a podcast.”
Axelrod also noted Emanuel’s vast political experience. “When you consider the breadth of his experience — counselor to one president [Clinton], chief of staff to another [Obama], member of Congress, part of congressional leadership, the mayor of Chicago, and then ambassador to Japan, where he really was sort of the captain of the Asian team when he was over there, he’s got a huge sweep of experience that no one else would have in that race.”
Matt Bennett, vice president of the center-left think tank Third Way, said his organization would spend $50 million to back a “combative centrist” like Emanuel. He told Politico he thinks Emanuel might be able to win.
Adam Wren, who authored the Politico piece, suggested that Emanuel views the current field as weak — a sentiment many of us share. With failed 2024 candidate Harris leading at 26.4%, Newsom, a man who wrecked the state of California and gets extremely flustered when challenged, at 19.4, and the hapless former Transportation Secretary Buttigieg in third place at 10.5%, Emanuel’s confidence is understandable.
Still, Wren wonders if “a figure who came of political age in the Bill Clinton era — and who has not been on the ballot in a decade — [can] really win a Democratic primary in the age of Donald Trump?”
So he asked him. Emanuel’s reply? “The answer to that is: It’s a jump ball. Even for the frontrunner, it’s a jump ball.”
Wren opened his article by detailing the intensity with which Emanuel eats a salad, offering it as a warning to his potential rivals in the 2028 Democratic presidential primary: “Because how Rahm eats a salad is how he does anything and everything: with intent and with verve and without mercy.”
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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