Heating up: Newsom, Pritzker, Buttigieg make early moves in 2028 presidential race

The early moves in the next White House race, at least among the Democrats, have begun.

"While my own plans don't include running for office in 2026, I remain intensely focused on consolidating, communicating and supporting a vision" that is an alternative to the "cruel chaos" of President Donald Trump's administration, Buttigieg said.

A source familiar with Buttigieg's thinking told Fox News the former transportation secretary is in a strong possible position to run for president in 2028 and that running for either senator or Michigan governor "in 2026 would have taken that off the table."

The first two guests of the podcast were MAGA world superstars Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon.

But that didn't sit well with two-term Gov. Andy Beshear, the Democrat in red state Kentucky who is also seen as a potential 2028 contender.

"I think that Gov. Newsom bringing on different voices is great," Beshear told reporters this past week. "We shouldn't be afraid to talk and to debate just about anyone. But Steve Bannon espouses hatred and anger, and, even at some points, violence. And I don't think we should give him oxygen on any platform - ever, anywhere."

But there's more. 

Harris, who lost November's White House race to Trump, is considering a 2026 bid to succeed Newsom in her home state of California. But a run for governor in 2026 would likely derail a 2028 White House bid.

A source in the former vice president's political orbit recently confirmed to Fox News Digital that Harris has told allies she will decide by the end of the summer whether to launch a gubernatorial campaign. 

And Harris earlier this month made a stop in Nevada, an early voting state on the Democrats' primary calendar.

Three other prominent Democrats considered potential 2028 contenders - governors Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Beshear - addressed the House Democrats' annual policy retreat Thursday.

Even Rahm Emanuel, the former congressman from Illinois, White House chief of staff in President Obama's administration and Chicago mayor who most recently served as U.S. ambassador to Japan, is potentially mulling a 2028 run. Emanuel this week was the topic of a feature report by Politico.

While 2028 seems like a very long way away, the early moves in the next White House race begin early for the party out of power.

That was the case for the Republicans in the 2024 cycle. 

Iowa continues to kick off the GOP's presidential nominating schedule, and the first stop there during the 2024 cycle by a potential White House contender was in March 2021, just weeks after Biden assumed the presidency.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who eventually decided not to run for president, grabbed plenty of attention as he spoke to the Westside Conservative Club in suburban Des Moines that year.

"There's no sense in waiting," New Hampshire-based political strategist Lucas Meyer told Fox News. "If anyone is serious about running for president, they would probably be well served in getting after it now."

Meyer, a former president of the New Hampshire Young Democrats who chairs the advocacy group 603 Forward, called it a "wide-open field" for Democrats.

"The crowd of leadership at the top of the Democratic Party isn't very deep at the moment," he observed. "There's oxygen there for someone."