2028 Democratic Presidential Power Rankings: Blue Tsunami Edition, Part II

Rounding out the top half of the latest rankings.

As the 2026 election grinds ever forward, the Republican Party stares down the barrel of a generational disaster. Even after going as far as rolling back the entire legacy of the civil rights movement to further their chances, they still stand set to lose at least one and likely both chambers of Congress. The load-bearing myth of their entire “populist” political project is gone, sunk to the bottom of the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian mine layers. Their big man’s overall job approval rating is as low as it’s ever been, while Democratic Senate candidates have seen polling leads everywhere from Alaska to Texas to Ohio. At the rate things are going, the tenth anniversary of the 2016 election is set to play host to the unwinding of the hated political system that Trump ushered in with his first win, with the Democrats finally securing the thumping rebuke of right-wing populism that consistently eluded them when the current and former President was associated with high growth and low prices.

Last week, we went over how this new political environment has impacted those on the fringes of top-tier contention. The dominant theme was that of a relatively condensed field, with a massive and largely indistinguishable morass of minor contenders standing outside a small group of international celebrities and young up-and-comers set to strike it big in 2026. It was quite a fun morass to explore, but now, it is time to get to the main event. While there is only one new face in this Top 5 compared to the last list, the Iran War and the subsequent immolation of the Trumpist coalition has still thoroughly shaken up the top tier of contention for the Democratic nomination, to the point that almost none of our names remain in the same spot that they were back in February.

Who is this new name who entered the top tier? Who stands at #1? How will liberals react to the results of an election where they stand to really win Texas for the first time in more than thirty years? All of these questions and more will be answered here.

The Top 5

#5: Gov. Josh Shapiro (🔻1)

At long, long last, he’s really on the way down.