Politics
Democratic governors (and 2028 hopefuls) gather to chart path under a Trump administration
BEVERLY HILLS, California — Still reeling from the party’s electoral losses last month, the country’s Democratic governors descended on a plush Beverly Hills hotel on Friday and Saturday for a series of closed-door meetings with donors, interest groups and advocacy organizations. Officially, the event was a time to chart a path forward under a Trump administration.
Unofficially, it also served as a preview of the next Democratic primary.
“You’re witnessing the kickoff to the 2028 presidential primary, live and in-person,” said one adviser to major Democratic Party donors, granted anonymity to speak candidly. He added: “This is the audition for the next president to a room full of donors, operatives, reporters, etc.”
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, who chairs the Democratic Governors Association, emphasized that the meeting was focused on the near term: keeping New Jersey and flipping Virginia in 2025, and on the “huge contingent of governors races in ’26.”
“Trust me, we’re not thinking beyond ’26 at this point,” she said.
But it was hard to ignore the weekend’s guest list stacked with potential 2028 contenders, including Govs. Gavin Newsom of California, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Tim Walz of Minnesota, JB Pritzker of Illinois and Roy Cooper of North Carolina. And for two days here, in this state that has long served as a bastion of Democratic politics, the Beverly Hilton was teeming with donors, strategists and lobbyists eager to land meetings with the rising stars.
Asked about the jockeying for 2028, Cooper told Blue Light News: “I’ll just say that there are a lot of great governors across this country who will make great leaders in the future.”
Democratic governors are preparing to thread a fine line between standing up to President-elect Donald Trump’s Republican trifecta in Washington and collaborating with the incoming administration.
Immediately following the election, some Democratic governors launched plans to “Trump-proof” their states, and in a memo released this week, Meghan Meehan-Draper, DGA’s executive director, wrote that Democratic governors would be the “Last Line of Defense” against the incoming GOP trifecta in the federal government.
Blue-state governors have been explicit that they intend to try to block some Trump policies — efforts that will also likely raise their own profiles. Pritzker and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis are leading an organization to “back against increasing threats of autocracy and fortifying the institutions of democracy that our country and our states depend upon” — and although the privately-funded group is non-partisan, the implications are clear.
“You come for my people, you come through me,” Pritzker told reporters last month in a warning to the incoming administration.
In deep-blue New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James created an initiative to “address any policy and regulatory threats that may emerge from a Trump Administration.” In California, Newsom called a special session of the legislature to lay the legal groundwork for the state to lead its second Trump resistance.
And Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said, “We’ve already taken from the last rodeo considerable efforts that have been considerably successful to prevent him from abusing our state financially and taking away our resources [and] targeting us.”
“You can’t say we’re ‘Trump-proofed,’ because he still has some levers to pull, but we’ve already done that considerably,” Inslee added.
But with the election loss still smarting, the event implicitly raised the question of who might have the right formula for the next one. Inslee said the governors are “focused on the election cycle for governors right now.” Still, he acknowledged that “the day after every election is the beginning” of the next one.
While the positioning for governors in 2017 was more stridently opposing Trump, this time around they seem to be hedging their bets. Newsom has promised he would offer an “open hand, not a closed fist,” to the incoming administration and other governors signaled a willingness to work alongside Trump on some issues.
Whitmer, who said her state “played a role in supporting president Trump” also said she hoped she would find ways to work with the president-elect. She emphasized “I won’t abandon my values, but I’m going to work hard to find common ground everywhere I can.”
“I’ve got two more years, and my goal is do everything I can for the state,” Whitmer added.
Cooper — who will be replaced as North Carolina governor in January by Democrat Josh Stein — said it would be “really important” for his successor to work with the federal government to help the state recover from Hurricane Helene.
And many acknowledged that the demands of their job required them to pick up the phone when the Trump administration calls. “We will continue to do what we do, which is work with whoever we need to work with to get what we need for our states,” Kelly said.
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is facing backlash from within his own party after using controversial rhetoric to describe the stakes of his victory in a recent donor meeting.
“You put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message, and all of a sudden starts to sound a lot different,” El-Sayed said, describing how his win could propel the progressive movement, according to audio of a Zoom meeting obtained by POLITICO.
On Monday, several Democrats were quick to slam his comments, which they took as direct reference to his Senate primary opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens. El-Sayed had not explicitly mentioned Stevens in the portion of the call Blue Light News reviewed.
“Calling your female opponent an ogre you want to put on a pike is not beating the rap that this race has some serious sexism,” Neera Tanden, a centrist Democrat and president of the Center for American Progress, posted on X. Melissa Byrne, a former staffer for Sen. Bernie Sanders, called the remark an “unforced error” that is “really bad and beneath the progressive project.”
El-Sayed’s leaked comments and the reaction to them amount to another flashpoint in a tense primary that is dividing the progressive and moderate wings of the party, and at times has been defined by accusations of racism and sexism.
“Abdul continues with personal insults and making this race about his personal political ambitions and the other 49 states,” said Arik Wolk, spokesperson for the Stevens campaign. “Haley is focused on getting things done for Michigan, and only Michigan.”
Republicans also immediately jumped on the comment, and some leaned into stereotypes of El-Sayed’s religion as a Muslim. “Michigan Islamist discusses beheading his opponents,” said Steve Guest, a former staffer for Sen. Ted Cruz, on X.
An El-Sayed campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the backlash. A spokesperson had previously told Blue Light News that the candidate was “speaking metaphorically” about his intention to support a primary against Sen. John Fetterman in Pennsylvania.
This is not the first time El-Sayed has used — and defended — aggressive political rhetoric. “When they go low, we don’t go high,” the progressive said while speaking at a campaign rally earlier this year, riffing on a famous line from former first lady Michelle Obama. “We take them to the mud and choke them out.”
He and Stevens will face off in their final Democratic Senate debate Monday night, and the results of the Aug. 4 primary could have major consequences for the party as it grapples with its ideological tack ahead of the 2028 presidential election.
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