As the nation gears up for a second Donald Trump presidency, the battle for 2028 has already begun.
The president-elect, who has jested numerous times about serving a third term, will not be on the ballot in 2028.
“I suspect I won’t be running again, unless you do something,” Trump reportedly told his GOP House colleagues as they met ahead of congressional leadership elections shortly after his election win. “Unless you say, ‘He’s so good, we have to just figure it out.’”
Unfortunately for Trump, it’s a highly unlikely scenario, and so Republicans and Democrats are already looking to their next candidates — and the competition is wide open.
Here we take a look at some of the top contenders for the 2028 presidency.
JD Vance
The incoming vice president and Ohio senator has emerged as one of the front-runners for the top of the Republican ticket.
And in “simply becoming vice president” Vance, 40, has only increased his chances, Politico noted, given the track record of his predecessors who went on to win their party’s presidential primaries — Joe Biden, Al Gore, George H.W. Bush and Walter Mondale.
Vance’s emergence from Hillbilly Elegy author and staunch Trump critic to serving as one of the youngest vice presidents in U.S. history in such a short space of time is no small feat. “If you think about where he came from and where he is, at forty years old,” conservative analyst Yuval Levin told the New Yorker, “J.D. is the single most successful member of his generation in American politics.”
On the campaign trail, Vance’s rhetoric often came back to haunt him, and he was unable to escape the “childless cat lady” comment which resurfaced from a 2021 interview. He also peddled harmful rhetoric about migrants, peddling a baseless rumor that Haitians were eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio.
But none of this appeared to harm him when voters went to the polls. And his performance in the vice-presidential debate against Tim Walz only reaffirmed the view that he could emerge the victor in the 2028 Republican primary.
Kamala Harris
While many might assume that the vice president’s defeat this year counts her out of the running next time, those in Harris’s inner circle are reportedly divided over her next move.
Top aides believe her ability to raise a cool $1 billion in the surprise race should leave her in pole position, according to CNN, whereas others think her best option is to run for California governor in 2026.
The 60-year-old’s performance in the presidential debate against Trump was also lauded, and resulted in his refusal to do a second.
Whatever the vice president decides to do next, despite the loss to Trump, Harris “appears to retain a significant reservoir of devout support,” Politico notes, citing a poll that found only 6 percent of voters blame her for the defeat.
The outlet cited a second poll which found Harris was the preferred candidate among Democrats for 2028 despite the loss, leading with 41 percent.
However, the outlet added the favorable polls should be met with caution, as early primary presidential polls are mainly about name recognition and the race remains wide open at this stage.
Donald Trump Jr
Don Jr might not be taking a position within his father’s second administration, but he played a significant role in getting the Republican re-elected.
Don Jr, 46, helped cement Vance as Trump’s pick for the Republican vice presidential nominee, played a role in brokering close ties with Robert F Kennedy Jr and encouraged his father to embrace cryptocurrencies.
He also ensured that “only loyalists and ideological true believers” are given the top jobs, the outlet added.
In an interview with Time magazine, Trump hinted that his children could carry on the MAGA dynasty. Referring to Don Jr, the president-elect said “I think he’d do very well,” when asked if he might have a future in politics. “I think he’s a very capable guy,” Trump said.
Now, after Lara Trump dropped out of running for the Senate, Don Jr is a likely family member to take over the MAGA reins.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
The New York congresswoman has had an impressive political career, winning a seat in the House when she was just 29.
Her name has been floated as a potential contender due to her ability to “cut through the BS and tell it like it is,” a Democratic strategist told The Hill.
“She’s somebody who can cut through the noise and doesn’t talk like Washington,” the strategist added.
A former member of Trump’s administration has even warned fellow Republicans not to “underestimate” her.
Monica Crowley, a former public affairs official in the Treasury Department during the first Trump administration, said AOC had “real grassroots support” through her early adoption of social media.
With eight million followers on Instagram, one million on TikTok and almost 13 million on X, she has a large national following for a backbencher.
The 35-year-old was also the fourth biggest fundraiser among Democratic House candidates in 2023-2024, Politico noted on its profile of the congresswoman, citing data compiled by OpenSecrets.
But there are some in the party who are concerned about AOC and the progressive ‘squad.’
“She and the ‘squad’ started pushing too hard, too fast,” another strategist told The Hill. “D.C. doesn’t work that way. And our party doesn’t work that way. We need to get back to the basics.”
Ocasio-Cortez, however, pushed back against the criticism that Democrats need to move away from “woke politics.”
“A lot of folks w/ poor campaign fundamentals are now blaming ‘wokism’ but haven’t held a town hall or knocked a door all cycle,” she said on BlueSky.