Donald Trump is only six months into his second term in office, and already, chatter is running wild about potential 2028 presidential contenders.
With Trump being unable to run again thanks to term limits, Vice President JD Vance will presumably be the GOP presidential nominee, with nearly four years of experience as the nation’s second-in-charge under his belt by the time the next presidential election rolls around.
On the Democrat side, we’ve seen several potential contenders try to elevate their profiles on the national stage, with 2024 Democrat vice presidential nominee and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, former Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker among those already testing the waters, positioning themselves as the Trump Resistance leader they think the country needs.
But California Gov. Gavin Newsom is the one who perhaps wants his party’s nomination the most, putting out feelers during Joe Biden’s presidency and laying the groundwork at the time as a possible alternative to Biden in the event he dropped out of the race (which he eventually did).
Though Newsom didn’t get the 2024 nomination, he has continued to make himself a fixture in news reports about 2028, with his long-running feud with Trump on issues like energy policy and illegal immigration only fueling his aspirations for higher office.
The ICE immigration sweeps in Los Angeles and the riots that followed have seen more chippiness between Trump and Newsom, with the governor accusing Trump of stoking division and being an “authoritarian” with his decision to send in National Guard troops, and Trump calling out Newsom for his many leadership failures, which span the nearly three decades he has been a political power player in the Golden State.
While Trump has moved on for the time being, with the Iran-Israel war and the United States joining the air campaign against Iran’s nuclear sites being front and center on his mind, Vance has stepped in, providing a possible preview of the 2028 presidential campaign season.
Vance recently visited Los Angeles to thank the ICE agents for their hard work and the National Guard for doing their part to try and help keep the peace. He, too, has accused California Democrats, including Newsom, of choosing to engage in self-serving political theater over a desire to actually help the people he is supposed to represent and protect.
This has further enraged Newsom, who on social media has challenged Vance to a debate, apparently forgetting how such a challenge backfired on him when he called on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to debate him in 2023, which ultimately did not go well at all for Newsom.
Newsom is desperate or, in modern slang, “thirsty” for national attention ahead of 2028. Seemingly, he views Vance as a political lightweight, an overrated asset for Trump.
Accordingly, he is going to be in for a rude awakening in the event that debate ever happens because it didn’t take long for Vance to establish himself last summer as a solid wingman for Trump, someone who could hold his own against his critics and then some, cleaning Walz’s clock in the vice presidential debate and repeatedly setting the record straight with receipts in hand to counter the media’s anti-Trump narratives.
We’ve seen more of the same from Vance since taking office, and he’ll have three more years of experience to help guide him when the 2028 general election campaign season rolls around, which will be bad news for Newsom (assuming he’s made it past the primaries) but good news for anyone eager to see Newsom’s massive ego cut down to size.
Politically speaking, be careful of what you wish for with Vance, Gavin Newsom, or you just might get way more than you bargained for.
North Carolina native Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah and is a media analyst and regular contributor to RedState and Legal Insurrection.
