(Townhall) The 2028 presidential election is still a long way off, though there’s still been plenty of chatter about which name leads the pack to follow Donald Trump as the next Republican nominee. That’s true for the Democrats as well now, after Vice President Kamala Harris lost to Trump, and Democrats also lost control of the Senate and failed to recapture control of the House. On Monday night, an Echelon Insights pollwent out showing that amongst 14 candidates, as well as a “Someone else” response and “Unsure,” Harris still has a healthy lead, with 41 percent saying they’d vote for her if the 2028 primary were held today.
In addition to Harris’ lead of 41 percent, there’s the 16 percent who said “unsure,” Eight percent said Gov. Gavin Newsom, who, like Harris, is from California. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who served as Harris’ running mate for this cycle, has only 6 percent support, as does Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who Harris very nearly picked as her running mate, has 7 percent support.
#New 2028 DEM primary poll
Kamala Harris – 41%
Gavin Newsom – 8%
Josh Shapiro – 7%
Pete Buttigieg – 6%
Tim walz – 6%Echelon pic.twitter.com/8za4jyDUiZ
— Political Polls (@PpollingNumbers) November 19, 2024
🚨 BREAKING: Kamala Harris LEADS the FIRST POLL for the 2028 Democrat Nomination, 41% to 8% pic.twitter.com/TjRqxlfThs
— Red Eagle Politics (@RedEaglePatriot) November 19, 2024
Such a pick, in many ways, isn’t surprising. Harris is likely freshest on voters’ minds. It’s also incredible, though, that the party is not yet ready to move on from her. This is even as the Democrats have engaged in quite the blame game over her loss, especially as they forced President Joe Biden to drop out of the race in July.
That Harris leads the pack so convincingly is certainly curious, and not just because she lost in a landslide. Following such election losses, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) expressed to The New York Times in an interview that she blamed Biden for not dropping out sooner and for endorsing Harris so quickly, thus getting in the way of a more open primary process.
Her plurality support is also in conflict with a write-up from Puck News, which partnered with Echelon on the poll:
