Democrats showed promise in 2025 as future party leaders

Carl P. Leubsdorf, Tribune News Service

Like most parties that lose presidential races, the Democrats have struggled through a difficult aftermath. But the handwringing over their lack of effective leadership failed to temper their strength at the polls. Exacerbating their difficulties has been the fact that neither of their two top congressional leaders — Sen. Chuck Schumer or Rep. Hakeem Jeffries — is an effective spokesperson. They got their jobs the old-fashioned way, as inside players. At the same time, some other Democrats showed promise this year as prospects to fill that leadership vacuum. Some will likely become serious 2028 presidential candidates.

They include: Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly — The former naval aviator and astronaut was on Kamala Harris’ short list for vice president in 2024 but faced concerns he lacked charisma. But this year, he emerged as one of the Democrats’ leading spokespersons on national security issues, especially on the Trump administration’s bombing of alleged narco-terrorists in the Caribbean.

From his perch on the Senate Armed Services Committee, he would be a major player in any subsequent probe of whether the administration’s attacks constituted war crimes. A political moderate from a growing swing state, he could help re-orient the party towards the center. But how he would fare in the rough-and-tumble of daily presidential campaigning is anybody’s guess.

California Rep. Ro Khanna — Long interested in what would be a long-shot 2028 presidential bid, the California progressive scored a signal success by joining with conservative Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie to force a congressional vote on a resolution seeking full release of government documents on convicted Jeffrey Epstein. Using a rarely successful legislative maneuver, they overcame opposition from President Donald Trump and GOP congressional leaders to force the vote on which both houses approved it by near unanimous votes. Khanna hopes for presidential support from Democratic party progressives who backed Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 2020 but is little known and could face opposition from other progressive hopefuls, like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani — Easily the year’s most unexpected political newcomer, the Uganda-born democratic socialist stunned the pundits and the politicians by winning New York City’s mayoralty over a field headed by former Governor Andrew Cuomo.

In the process, he put affordability atop the nation’s political agenda. His election also gave a psychological boost to political progressives who want to move the Democratic party to the left, but voters only elected one other like-minded candidate, Mayor-elect Katie Wilson of Seattle. California Gov. Gavin Newsom — At a time many Democrats were demanding stronger leadership to counter Trump, the two-term California governor stepped forward. He used the courts to challenge the president’s dispatch of National Guard troops to help round up illegal immigrants in the Los Angeles area, and he offset the Texas Republican redistricting effort by winning approval of a plan adding Democratic seats in his state. Newsom, whose second term ends next year, said he is considering a 2028 bid, and his political travel schedule included two days of appearances in rural South Carolina, usually one of the first states on the primary calendar.

Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker — Another governor considered likely to run in 2028, Pritzker matched Newsom in speaking out strongly against Trump’s presidency, assailing the “simpering timidity” of some other Democrats and calling — in the traditional first primary state of New Hampshire — for mass protests, mobilization and disruption. His outspoken opposition to the administration’s use of National Guard troops for immigration roundups may have forestalled one in Chicago. Likely headed for easy 2026 re-election in his solidly blue home state, he has the wealth to self-finance a presidential bid. New Jersey Gov.-elect Mike Sherrill — A Naval Academy graduate and onetime helicopter pilot, Sherrill followed up her 2018 election to the House by becoming the first Democrat to succeed another Democrat as New Jersey’s governor since the 1960s. She easily won what polls showed as a close race by focusing relentlessly on housing and utility costs. Many Democrats hailed her election and Spanberger’s as signs the voters prefer more moderate Democrats.

Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin — The Michigan freshman senator, who like the governors-elect of New Jersey and Virginia brought a national security background to the House in 2018, emerged as another leader of Democrats seeking to re-orient the party toward a more centrist course. She stressed pocketbook issues in delivering the party’s official response to Trump’s initial speech to Congress and later at a forum she convened to discuss economic issues in Overland Park, Ks., a Kansas City suburb. Slotkin joined Sen. Kelly and several other national security-minded Democrats on the controversial video reminding service members they did not have to follow illegal orders, prompting Trump to threaten to arrest and try them for “seditious behavior.” Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger — Like Sherrill and Slotkin, Spanberger, a former intelligence operative, pursued a moderate course in Congress, where the Lugar Center and Georgetown University rated her as Virginia’s most bipartisan lawmaker.

In campaigning for governor, she vowed to avoid unachievable promises and concentrate on protecting Virginia families from Trumpism’s excesses and termed her victory a triumph of “pragmatism over partisanship.” With terms running through the next presidential election, neither she nor Sherrill is likely to seek national office in 2028. But a successful governorship could earn one of them consideration as the next nominee’s running mate.