In just a few days, the Democrats who want to run for president in 2028 can finally be honest.
All year, these Democrats have sworn that they are focused on helping to win races in a midterm election that their party describes as existential. But stealthily, they have been preparing for what is likely to be an extravagantly expensive primary campaign.
With winks and nods, they are inviting major donors to lunch, daydreaming about super PACs and recruiting top fund-raising and strategizing talent for campaigns that technically don’t exist yet. In Aspen or the Hamptons this summer, ambitious Democrats were pulling aside some of the richest people in the world to try to line up financial support ahead of time.
Gavin Newsom. Wes Moore. Josh Shapiro. Andy Beshear. JB Pritzker. All of these potential 2028 candidates and more have been laying the groundwork for campaigns, according to fund-raising invitations and interviews with more than two dozen Democratic donors and operatives involved in the behind-the-scenes discussions and preparations.
“It’s just money, money, money,” said Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, a longtime Democratic fund-raiser who separately hosted Mr. Moore, the governor of Maryland, and Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia on Nantucket this summer. “It’s going to be wild.”
Starting early has not been optional, Democratic fund-raisers say. With the first candidates expected to announce their campaigns as soon as the end of this year, there is expected to be intense financial pressure in a crowded field. Democratic National Committee fund-raisers are already being asked to raise money for access to “early bird” tickets to attend the party’s 2028 primary debates.
The race for cash is also notable because of the party’s uneasy debate over the role of big money in politics, with progressive leaders like Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, railing against wealthy megadonors and calling for Democrats to swear off super PACs.
“It bothers most Americans how nonstop and how early the next campaigns are going,” said Jeff Clements, who runs an advocacy group calling for tighter campaign finance laws.
But, he added, “the demands of money for campaigns, including outside spending and super PACs, are so intense and accelerating that it has to start early if you’re going to be ready and be considered viable.”
It’s About Who You Know
In the 2020 Democratic primary, support from super PACs was politically explosive, and candidates tiptoed around the issue.
This time around, aides for Democratic candidates-in-waiting are already spitballing about the leanings of potential super PAC donors and planning the creation of personal super PACs, dark-money nonprofits not required to disclose their donors, or both.
“My assumption is that a majority of the candidates are going to have their own super PAC,” said Danielle Butterfield, a Democratic strategist. Her group, Priorities USA, plans to remain neutral in the primary race, but it has briefed aides for roughly a dozen would-be candidates on their research.
Mr. Newsom is perhaps the furthest along in preparing a turnkey high-dollar operation. Some finance aides have felt out the leanings of potential seven-figure donors, and two Newsom aides have told allies that they plan to be involved with his presidential super PAC.
As the governor of California, the state with the most billionaires, Mr. Newsom has certain advantages. Already, two Democratic megadonors, Reed Hastings, the Netflix co-founder, and Chris Larsen, a crypto billionaire, have signaled their leanings toward him. Mr. Newsom has staked out a donor-friendly position opposing California’s proposed billionaire tax and invited donors to V.I.P. receptions on his book tour.
Other Democrats like Mr. Moore, Mr. Ossoff and Mr. Shapiro, the Pennsylvania governor, have tried to get in on the California riches, making pilgrimages this year to raise money in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles.
Some of these efforts have paid off: Mr. Shapiro met in March in the Bay Area with Mr. Larsen, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting. Despite his fondness for Mr. Newsom, Mr. Larsen donated $1 million that month to Mr. Shapiro’s re-election campaign.
Some Democrats have been able to court donors under the auspices of their day jobs. For instance, Mr. Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, also serves as the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. Interspersed with his travels for association business, he has regularly had allies assemble groups of donors for him to meet with on the side ahead of 2028.
Like several other likely candidates, Mr. Beshear is already thinking about who might lead his national finance committee, according to a person close to his operation. That is an important role for raising the huge amount of money that will be needed to run a competitive Democratic primary campaign — potentially over $100 million.
Aspen, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard
Mr. Shapiro, Mr. Ossoff and Mr. Moore are up for re-election, and their campaigns have given them face time with national donors in places like Aspen and Martha’s Vineyard, even as their allies insist that they are uninterested in presidential distractions.
Other possible 2028 candidates who hit upscale summer hot spots included Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Chris Murphy of Connecticut, as well as Representative Ro Khanna of California. Along with Mr. Ossoff, they could have an immediate financial leg up because they are federal office holders who could transfer leftover money from their campaign accounts to presidential bids.
Mr. Khanna has not been coy. In August, he gathered about 250 national donors in Menlo Park, Calif., for a meeting of what his team called his “national finance committee.” Ron Klain, a White House chief of staff under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., spoke at the gathering.
This month, Mr. Kelly hosted his annual retreat in Tucson, Ariz., for his top fund-raisers, full of golf and stargazing.
One candidate has his own money to fall back on: Mr. Pritzker, a billionaire heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune.
During his two runs for governor of Illinois, Mr. Pritzker spent over $300 million of his own money, declining to raise almost any cash from outside donors. This year, he has made a renewed effort to engage the wealthy, including at a dinner in his Chicago home to celebrate the opening of the new Obama presidential library in June.
Mr. Pritzker is not typically asking for money, fund-raisers say. And yet he recently hired the head of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 high-dollar operation, Dennis Cheng, who has been working to introduce Mr. Pritzker to top donors. Mr. Cheng’s hire is widely seen by donors as a shift by the governor toward raising external money for a presidential campaign, something allies say he plans to do if he runs.
Then there is Pete Buttigieg, the former transportation secretary, who has traveled the country raising money for midterm candidates. He has also contacted rich potential donors for one-on-one meetings and is assessing what his super PAC operation will look like, according to two people briefed on the preparations.
Also without a current political job, but asking billionaires to meet, is Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor. His superagent brother, Ari Emanuel, is regularly talking him up around Hollywood.
“I know what it’s what’s going to take,” Rahm Emanuel said of the money needed for a presidential run. As for whether his brother will back him? “If I have to check whether my family will support me, I’m in real trouble.”
Donors aren’t hearing much from two top potential contenders: former Vice President Kamala Harris and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. (Ms. Harris did speak with a top D.N.C. donor, Phil Munger, the son of the Berkshire Hathaway billionaire Charles Munger, according to two people briefed on the interaction.) Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is one of the few possible candidates who might not need to rely on wealthy benefactors given her strong support from small donors.
Will Big Donors Pick Favorites?
In a sprawling primary, support from just a few big donors might be essential to staying in the race.
The top targets are obvious. Tom Steyer, a former hedge fund manager, has spoken recently with a handful of possible candidates, including Mr. Khanna, whom he is close with, and Mr. Emanuel. Michael R. Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, has taken a liking to Mr. Shapiro, according to two people briefed on the relationship, and donated $2.5 million to the governor’s re-election run.
The Soros family has hosted two events for Mr. Ossoff, including one this summer in the Hamptons. But Alexander Soros has also praised Mr. Newsom and Mr. Pritzker.
Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn and a Democratic megadonor, said at an event last month that he had spoken with many in the ascendant Democratic field about artificial intelligence. He donated $1 million this summer to a super PAC backing Mr. Ossoff.
Deborah Simon, a shopping mall heiress, is enamored with Mr. Beshear, according to two people close to her. Another of the country’s biggest Democratic donors, Sue Mandel, has met one on one recently with several 2028 presidential hopefuls, according to a person close to her.
Like Ms. Mandel, many donors are playing the field.
“There are many excellent Democratic contenders,” said Amy Goldman Fowler, who donated over $4 million to help Democrats during the last presidential cycle. “But it’s too early for me to pick favorites.”
Reid J. Epstein contributed reporting.
