“See you in court.”
Those words, uttered a year ago at the White House, captured the tension in the air as the nation’s governors met with the newly reinstalled president, Donald Trump. At that moment, Maine’s Democratic governor was pushing back on the president’s threat to withhold federal funds for child nutrition due to her state’s defense of transgender athletes.
Eventually, the Trump administration and Maine settled in court, and funding was restored. But the episode underscored how the Democratic Party would wield power during the second Trump presidency: via its governors, not the Republican-controlled Congress.
Why We Wrote This
As U.S. governors convene in Washington this week, many Democrats among them will be in the spotlight as top contenders for their party’s 2028 presidential nomination. One reason: They found ways to fight back against the Trump administration.
On Thursday, as the National Governors Association convenes in Washington again for its annual winter meeting, prominent Democratic governors will again be in the spotlight.
Maine’s chief executive, Janet Mills, is now running for the U.S. Senate, and is locked in a fierce primary battle against an upstart populist. The winner will face centrist Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November – a race that could determine control of the Senate.
But the biggest spotlight at this year’s NGA confab might be on the many Democratic governors gearing up, by all appearances, to run for president in 2028. From Gavin Newsom of California and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania to JB Pritzker of Illinois, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, and Wes Moore of Maryland, a slew of Democratic governors are considered top prospects for their party’s 2028 nomination, though it’s still early.
One reason they’re attracting attention is that they’ve found ways to successfully challenge Mr. Trump at the state level, at times in court. And they have cast themselves to frustrated Democratic base voters as willing to fight.
The Trump administration’s decision to withdraw National Guard troops from Los Angeles, Chicago, and Portland, Oregon, came after months of pushback by governors, mayors, and protesters in those cities. The drawdown of immigration enforcement personnel from Minneapolis, after the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal officers, also came after sustained resistance from Democratic politicians in Minnesota, including Gov. Tim Walz. And in numerous states, including most prominently California, Democratic governors have fought fire with fire in countering the Trump administration’s congressional redistricting effort aimed at keeping the GOP’s slim House majority.
At the NGA Winter Meeting in Washington this week, the dynamic of Mr. Trump’s interactions with the governors, between a breakfast gathering on Friday and a dinner on Saturday, could add fodder to both parties’ presidential nomination battles – including Republicans potentially looking to succeed Mr. Trump, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Whether those White House meetings would even happen was in question until the last minute. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, chair of the NGA, initially said he would cancel the White House events because Democratic governors hadn’t been invited.
Mr. Trump responded by calling the apparent snub a “misunderstanding,” and saying that Democrats were, in fact, invited – except for Governor Moore of Maryland and Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado. He also referred to Governor Stitt as a “RINO,” a “Republican In Name Only.
Mr. Trump has publicly criticized Governor Polis over the case of Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk convicted in state court of breaching the security of voting equipment while trying to find evidence that the 2020 election had been stolen. (Mr. Trump can only pardon federal crimes.)
For potential 2028 presidential candidates such as Mr. Moore, the fight with Mr. Trump could be politically helpful. The two men recently traded barbs over social media after Mr. Trump blamed the Maryland governor for a massive sewage spill in the Potomac River, which runs along the border of both Maryland and the District of Columbia. The sewer line that failed is the responsibility of the D.C. Water utility, and not controlled by Maryland. Mr. Trump similarly criticized Mr. Moore for his handling of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore in 2024.
In recent years, being a governor has not been a springboard to the presidency. The last governor to win a first term as president was Texas’ George W. Bush in 2000. The last Democratic governor to win a first term as president was Arkansas’ Bill Clinton in 1992.
Governors “deal with the nuts and bolts of governing,” and that can make it hard to break through in today’s chaotic media environment, says Larry Sabato, a veteran political analyst at the University of Virginia. “That doesn’t lend itself to broad-based slogans like ‘Make America Great Again.’”
Still, the executive experience that governors gain can be an asset for those seeking the nation’s top job.
California’s Governor Newsom often notes that he runs the most populous U.S. state, as well as the world’s fourth-largest economy. At the same time, he has shown an almost Trumpian ability to command attention, using social media to mock the president and to troll other top Republicans – including Vice President JD Vance, a potential rival in 2028.
Mr. Newsom has also attracted attention for hosting MAGA stalwarts on his podcast, “This is Gavin Newsom,” including Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk, before the latter’s assassination this past September.
Another box checked by several Democratic governors in the 2028 presidential sweepstakes is memoir publishing. Mr. Shapiro’s book, “Where We Keep the Light,” earned headlines for the Pennsylvania governor’s candid description of his interview to be 2024 Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’s running mate.
Mr. Newsom’s memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry,” will be released Feb. 24. Governor Beshear, a rare Democrat elected in a red state, announced this week that he has a book coming out in September focused on his Christian faith called “Go and Do Likewise.” Mr. Moore, the governor of Maryland, has published five books, including a memoir called “The Other Wes Moore.”
For now, polls show former Vice President Harris leading the Democratic presidential primary for 2028 but, at this stage, it largely just reflects name recognition. Mr. Newsom, another high-profile politician, typically comes in second. Other Democrats in the mix include former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
If Mr. Newsom officially enters the race for the 2028 nomination – a contest that’s likely to start about a year from now – he will face questions about California’s ultra-liberal policies and his own past political missteps, including an infamous dinner at the swanky French Laundry restaurant outside San Francisco during the height of the pandemic lockdown.
Still, Mr. Newsom earns kudos from many Democrats for following the Trump model on social media: being aggressive and relentless, by turns funny and mean.
“It takes a lot to get in the gutter with these guys, and he’s doing it,” Democratic strategist Jim Manley says of California’s two-term governor. “He’s got a lot of baggage he’s going to have to deal with. But for right now, you see him doing a really good job of taking on Trump.”
