The tryouts for the 2028 presidential election have already begun.
Democratic and Republican 2028 contenders alike have been heading to battleground states and districts to boost their names with voters, show campaigning prowess, and make key political allies across important areas of the country.
In that same vein, not all suspected 2028 candidates are playing their cards the same way. Some of the possible presidential candidates, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, 55, have opted to stay on the sidelines during the midterm elections, while others have sat for press interviews and floated their own names to the media.
From Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY), 48, and Vice President JD Vance, 42, to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), 36, each possible candidate is appearing in different ways on the 2026 midterm trail. Here’s how some possible contenders are showing up.
Stumping, fundraising, and advertising in swing states and districts
Democratic governors reportedly eyeing a 2028 run have been stumping in key districts in or near their home states. Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), 53, has taken to the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, throwing his campaigning weight behind Democratic House candidate Bob Brooks to challenge incumbent Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) in the state’s 7th Congressional District.
Shapiro, who is running for reelection this year, also recently appeared with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), 55, another possible contender, in Philadelphia to get out the vote for Democrats in the elections. Shapiro told WHYY that he and Whitmer were “working hard to help do our part to flip the Congress of the United States right here in Pennsylvania and to make sure we have a check on [President] Donald Trump’s chaos, cruelty, and corruption.”
Beshear, the head of the Democratic Governors Association, has also been clear that he is mulling a possible run in 2028 while hitting the campaign trail in 2026. Beshear has appeared in multiple states on his book tour for his new memoir, Go and Do Likewise, while also appearing and campaigning with several Democratic gubernatorial candidates, such as Amy Acton in Ohio, Rob Sand in Iowa, and Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD), 47. Beshear has also campaigned and advertised hard for Democratic candidate Zach Dembo, who is taking on GOP candidate Ralph Alvarado in the open 6th District seat around Lexington.
“Zach is winning this race,” Beshear told Politico on Thursday after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in ads backing Dembo.
Moore is also testing his own midterm stumping potential, heading to his neighboring state of Virginia to campaign for Democrats in key House races there.
Like Beshear, several other 2028 contenders are going on multistate tours to show up for candidates across the country.
On the Republican side, Vance is hitting GOP battleground states and districts to stump for Republicans, while Trump has largely stuck to campaigning in red states. Vance has traveled to Iowa to stump for Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA), Texas to campaign for battleground Republican House candidate Eric Flores, and Florida to stump for Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) in his gubernatorial race.
Vance has held rallies in states ranging from Iowa to Kansas and soon-to-be Alaska, touting Republicans’ tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and railing against socialist candidates within the Democratic Party.
“This is the choice the good people of Florida face the next month: It’s whether or not we continue to fight fraud and put Americans first, or whether we return to the failed policies of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, whether we return our country to the far-left radicals who’d rather burn it all down,” Vance told a crowd of Floridians on Thursday as he campaigned for Donalds and Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL).
On the Democratic side, other likely 2028 contenders — such as Harris, 61, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), 58, Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL), 61, former Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, 66, and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, 44 — have started multistate tours, touching down in key midterm and key 2028 states, such as South Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, and Michigan.
Harris has held campaign events in California, Nevada, and Georgia, starting her tour off in Michigan to stump with the progressive Democratic nominee for Michigan’s open Senate seat, Abdul el Sayed. Harris endorsed and stumped for el Sayed in the general election after his heated primary against the Democratic establishment’s pick for the seat, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), addressing the divisive primary while in the Wolverine State.
“It’s OK to not be in love with a candidate,” Harris said on the point of Democratic unity at a Michigan NAACP event in late September. “It’s OK to vote and ask everybody else to vote because this choice is better than that one. That’s what gets you where you need to go.”
Newsom and Buttigieg have launched campaign swings through several states, with Newsom hitting states such as Nevada and traditionally deep-red Southern states, and Buttigieg drawing packed crowds in New Hampshire. During a stop in North Carolina, Newsom argued that Democrats need to stop waiting for a 2028 figure to come along and instead focus on the midterm and smaller elections, like Republicans.
“We’re consumed by the ‘savior,’” Newsom said. “The perfect person that’s going to come along on a white horse and save the day. And these guys are ruthless, focusing on judges and city council races and school board races. And they’ve earned their majorities in a lot of these states because they’re out there grinding, and we’re out there watching cable TV waiting for the 2028 presidential calendar.”
While candidates such as Pritzker and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), 57, are each running for their own reelection this year, they have made time to travel to other states to campaign in other midterm races. Booker has made stops in Mississippi to campaign for Scott Colom, the Democrat running for Senate against Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS)
Some lawmakers possibly eyeing a presidential run have been focusing on driving up voter turnout in their state. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), 55, Ocasio-Cortez, and Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), 39, have been focusing much of their general election efforts on their home states of Texas, New York, and Georgia, respectively.
Ocasio-Cortez has stumped in upstate New York, while Ossoff has joined forces with gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms and other Democrats running for office in the Peach State.
In Texas, Cruz has joined Republican Ken Paxton, who is running to be Cruz’s junior senator, on the campaign trail. Cruz has stumped and helped fundraise for Paxton after his bruising primary against Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).
Press tours and name floating
Several possible 2028 candidates have teased the idea of running for president throughout the 2026 midterm election cycle, appearing on panels or press interviews in which they have floated the possibility.
Former Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, 64, told a panel in New Hampshire that he has not ruled out a third run for president.
“Am I looking at it? Look, anybody who comes up here and has ever run for president and not won and told you they’re not looking at it again is lying,” Christie said.
Other possible contenders, such as former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, 66, and Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), 74, also have not ruled out 2028 runs when asked in media interviews.
“I haven’t made a decision,” Kennedy said in a Meet the Press interview. “If a bunch of on my side of the aisle, if a bunch of goobers run — and I think they’re goobers — and one of the goobers might win, and I think I could do a better job, I would consider running.”
Landrieu also told Politico that he was “seriously” thinking about the idea.
Staying out of the fold
While many possible 2028 presidential candidates have taken to the 2026 campaign field as they try to prove their campaign prowess, some contenders have stayed nearly entirely out of the fold.
Rubio, whom many pundits have predicted will give a 2028 run a shot, has stayed off the campaign trail despite other Trump team members, such as Vance, stumping for GOP candidates. A State Department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner in late August that it’s “long-standing” policy for Senate-approved Cabinet members to avoid “attending partisan conventions.”
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Another name pundits expect to be mulling a 2028 run is Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
Paul has largely stayed off the 2026 general election campaign trail, though he campaigned for his fellow Bluegrass State fiscal hawk Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) during the Republican primaries. Massie ended up losing his primary to Trump-endorsed Ed Gallrein.