2028 contenders

How 2028 contenders are messaging through the shutdown

The immediate response to the government closure has served as a vivid illustration of stylistic differences emerging in the run-up to 2028.

By Blake Jones and Dustin Gardiner

Gavin Newsom is trolling Donald Trump with AI-generated cartoons. Josh Shapiro is assuring constituents that his state’s government is open for business. And Kamala Harris is backchanneling with Chuck Schumer.

In the messaging war over the federal government shutdown, potential presidential contenders are stepping onto one of their first major public policy stages. And while the contenders — like Democrats everywhere — are nearly uniformly blaming Trump and Hill Republicans for the closure, the immediate response to the shutdown has served as a vivid illustration of stylistic differences emerging in the run-up to 2028.

“It’s a higher bar for the Democrats who are in the ‘28 conversation,” said Doug Herman, a Los Angeles-based Democratic consultant. “There’s more attention, there’s more focus, there’s more expectation that they will be leading opposition to the Republican Party efforts, whatever it is, and today, that is the shutdown.”

The contenders’ actual involvement in the Hill dispute varies widely. Sitting governors have braced their states for impact. Congress members have lined up behind their caucus leaders. And while Harris is out of office, she has talked with Schumer by phone about the shutdown, according to two people briefed on the call.

Publicly, the field-in-waiting has ranged from mocking to mute as they message their way through the stalemate:

The firebreather: Newsom has, in character, been spitting the most fire. He preemptively blamed Republicans for the shutdown on social media over the weekend, and his team this week began applying its irreverent and satirical style of social media parody to the shutdown.

“TRUMP ‘MARIE ANTOINETTE’ SAYS, ‘NO HEALTH CARE FOR YOU PEASANTS, BUT A BALLROOM FOR THE QUEEN!’” Newsom’s press office account posted on social media, above a faux portrait of Trump depicted as the former French queen.

The California governor, a leading contender in early polling, has also made more substantive critiques, echoing Democrats’ focus on expiring health care subsidies and warning that the closure will suspend fire prevention efforts.

But his focus is squarely on Trump. In a campaign email soliciting donations for his attempt to gerrymander California’s House maps in favor of Democrats, Newsom wrote, “If you are looking for a way to make Donald Trump and Republicans pay for shutting down the government, winning here is something they will feel.” A campaign spokesperson for him declined to further comment.

The traditionalists: Other Democrats like Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker have similarly condemned Republicans, but in a more measured tone. Pritzker, during an unrelated event in Chicago on Wednesday, focused on the immediate harm to some 45,000 Illinoisans, who he said are furloughed due to the shutdown. He pressed for Trump to negotiate with Democratic leaders.

“The president of the United States decided to shut down the government because he’s unwilling to sit down with Democrats,” Pritzker said. “He wrote a book, or supposedly wrote a book, called ‘The Art of the Deal,’ and says he’s a great dealmaker. Time to go to work.”

Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, blamed Republicans for the then-impending shutdown Tuesday but remained diplomatic, saying in a direct-to-camera address that his “hope is that our federal partners … are going to work this out.”

His minimal references to the partisanship of the issue reflected the old-school, purple-state brand of polish often associated with Shapiro. A spokesperson for the governor declined to expand on the comments, perhaps betting Shapiro’s more understated approach is paying off after the release of a Quinnipiac poll showed him beating Vice President JD Vance by 10 points in Pennsylvania in a hypothetical 2028 matchup.

Harris, who has not ruled out a run in 2028, discussed the shutdown with Schumer within the last few days, according to the two people briefed, who were granted anonymity to discuss the contact between the two top Democrats and declined to provide a readout of the call. (Spokespeople for Schumer did not respond to a request for comment.). Harris’ rhetoric has been in line with Democrats elsewhere, making clear on Monday she supported her party’s efforts to extract health care concessions by withholding their support for Republican-authored spending legislation.

In the same vein, Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky told The Courier Journal in a statement that the federal government shut down because Trump “refuses to keep his campaign promises to preserve affordable health care for millions of Americans.” A campaign spokesperson had no additional comment when reached by Playbook.

The tight-lipped: And then there’s the most reserved potential contenders who’ve said little — if anything — publicly about the federal shutdown in recent days.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, for instance, hasn’t been beating the drum about the shutdown. That could be because she has her hands full negotiating with Michigan legislators to try to avert a state government shutdown amid a budget impasse. A Whitmer spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Nor did a spokesperson for former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. While he previously said that Trump and Republicans would be to blame for a shutdown, Buttigieg hasn’t addressed the crisis on social media in recent days.