A new poll reveals who Democrats would like to see run for president.
The Yale Youth Poll of 3,426 registered voters—including 1,706 aged 18-34—shows California Governor Gavin Newsom leading Democratic voters’ 2028 presidential preferences.
Newsom tops the list with 25 percent support and an 85 percent electability rating, followed by former Vice President Kamala Harris at 18 percent support and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at 16 percent.
The fall survey comes as both Newsom and Harris have hinted at possible presidential runs.
In an October CBS Sunday Morning interview, the California governor and frequent MAGA troller told host Robert Costa that he’d be “lying” if he said he wasn’t considering a potential run for president.
“I think the biggest challenge for anyone who runs for any office is that people see right through you if you don’t have that ‘why,’” Newsom, 58, said about his potential candidacy.
The California governor has come into the public spotlight during the second Trump administration, drawing attention for his frequent social media posts mocking President Donald Trump.
Newsom is set to step down as governor in January 2027 after completing two terms in office and has been traveling to battleground states ahead of the 2026 midterm elections to campaign for Democratic candidates. Presidential candidates typically register with the Federal Election Commission and announce their intention to run in the spring of the election year.
At the same time, Harris, 61, acknowledged in a BBC interview promoting her book 107 Days—which details her brief presidential campaign after former President Joe Biden dropped out of the race—that she is “not done” when asked about a possible future run in the next presidential election.
Though Ocasio-Cortez, 36, hasn’t publicly hinted at a presidential run, her allies told The Hill in September, “Why wouldn’t she be considering this?” calling her “one of the biggest voices in the Democratic Party.”
The Yale poll notes that all potential Democratic candidates have bases of support, as reflected in how support is divided along demographic lines. Ocasio-Cortez is most popular with voters under 35; Newsom leads among white, male, and Hispanic Democrats; and Harris is favored by female and Black Democrats.
The variations in support among Democratic voters stand in contrast to Republican voters, where Vice President JD Vance, 41, led as the preferred candidate across all age and racial groups.
Overall, 51 percent of self-identified Republican respondents chose Vance as their preferred nominee, followed by Donald J. Trump, 79, with 8 percent, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, 47, with 6 percent.
Interestingly, Vance ranks second in a hypothetical scenario that includes Trump in the primary—a move the president has hinted at pursuing, despite the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which states that “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
In a scenario where Trump ran again, pollsters of all age groups—except those aged 18–22—favored Trump over Vance, with 50 percent overall saying they would vote for Trump and 19 percent for Vance.
