John Sasso has been an adviser in several Democratic presidential campaigns.
After analyzing the midterms for a couple of days, the political world will quickly turn to the 2028 presidential campaign. Now that Democrats have had a big night and taken back the House, Senate, and several governorships, can they win the presidency and put an emphatic end to the Trump era?
On the one hand it’s simple: Democratic presidential hopefuls should tie Republican candidates to Trump on everything from affordability and wars to Trump’s narcissism and other norm-shattering behavior. And do it quickly, because it will be harder for them to escape those ties in the initial stages of the campaign.
But, being anti-Trump won’t be enough. To hold and increase support from the independents and the slice of Trump voters who came their way in the midterms, Democratic candidates will need their own specific plans to lower costs and raise wages — plans firmly rooted in addressing the struggles of average Americans and curbing the influence of powerful interests.
The Democratic field will be wide open, and at its core should represent generational change. The race will bring into focus the various elements of the party — progressives, moderates, democratic socialists, populists, and Democratic-leaning independents.
Somehow, those different factions must fuse together a winning message for 2028. Out of Democratic victories in Texas, Michigan, North Carolina, Kansas, and Iowa, Democrats need to find the common thread — beyond renunciation of Trump — that becomes the foundation of a winning national campaign.
Democrats win the White House when candidates define who they are and what they stand for before Republicans unfairly do it for them. Not doing so cost Michael Dukakis and Hillary Clinton the presidency.
Democrats also win when voters are disillusioned enough with Republican rule to elect a Democrat who articulates a different and better vision for the country. That’s how Bill Clinton and Barack Obama won.
With Trump there are grounds for more than disillusionment. There are grounds for absolute rejection of what he represents. Several winning candidates this past cycle effectively linked Trump’s myriad corruption enterprises directly to taking money out of American’s pockets — a corruption tax. But in addition to Trump’s grifting, Democrats should also link his authoritarian actions — undermining the judiciary, sowing constant doubt about elections, limiting the free press, and trying to prosecute his opponents — to the economic squeeze felt by average Americans.
Candidates should highlight the way Trump defers to one of the most dangerous men in the world — President Vladimir Putin of Russia. In his own nation, Putin has destroyed free media, neutered the courts, cheated on elections, jailed opponents, and governed with a blizzard of lies. All so he and his oligarchy have an unfettered path to personal wealth and power while bleeding the Russian people dry. This is a version of what Trump is seemingly trying to bring to America.
Trump’s authoritarian perversions need to be called out individually, but they resonate more when connected to people’s larger economic concerns.
Trying to rein in tariffs and end the wars in Iran and Ukraine are the vital beginning, but Democratic presidential candidates will also need their own plans to lower health care costs, grocery prices, and utility costs; expand housing affordability; increase wages; and protect jobs in the age of artificial intelligence.
Immigration and transgender rights are important issues that strike a chord as cultural touchstones. In the midterms, many Democrats addressed these issues in a way that drew broader support.
On immigration, they recognized the need for border security and immigration enforcement, but stressed that Trump’s mass deportation campaign needs to be stopped and Immigration and Customs Enforcement completely overhauled. They emphasized that deportation must be sharply focused on actual criminals and not nursing home aides, restaurant employees, rideshare drivers, and farmworkers.
Many Democrats backed full civil rights for transgender people in employment, housing, education, and military service but were cautious, as most Americans are, on transgender athletes and early adolescent transitioning.
These stances should be brought into the 2028 presidential race. These issues are a deep-rooted signal to many voters whether a candidate is in step with their values.
Too often, voters feel Democrats take extreme positions on sensitive cultural issues because they fear blowback from constituencies. If some of these groups criticize candidates, let them do so with mutual tolerance and not make differences a litmus test. If we believe that Trump and his enablers are a genuine threat to our way of life, space needs to be provided in this diverse nation to reach a broad cross section of voters.
By defining themselves clearly on economic and cultural issues, sometimes in opposition to their own allies, Democratic presidential hopefuls can show their own political strength and personal conviction. These are two powerful qualities people look for in a president.
If Democratic presidential candidates come out of the gate drawing the right contrasts, keeping that big tent mindset, and having learned the lessons from the midterms, the eventual nominee can win a national election and begin to restore Americans’ faith in the future.