Kamala Harris Gets The Warmest Welcome At Dems’ First Big 2028 Cattle Call

NEW YORK – It wasn’t Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina, but a cavernous ballroom in Midtown Manhattan that marked Democrats’ first stop on the road to the White House.

The Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network Convention — an annual gathering of Black civil leaders, activists and voters in New York — served as the first major informal audition for potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidates to pitch themselves before one of the party’s most powerful constituencies.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris packed the hall to capacity and was met with multiple standing ovations and chants encouraging her to “run again.” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore brought his audience to their feet. And New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker closed out the convention’s candidate appearances with a fiery speech that crescendoed into sustained applause from the crowd.

Other hopefuls included Arizona Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). They encountered a friendly and attentive, but comparatively muted, audience, drawing occasional applause but less energy than Harris, Moore and Booker, the three Black potential 2028 candidates who addressed the event.

A pack of the party’s biggest stars sat for what Sharpton billed as “fireside chats” on the event’s mainstage to discuss the issues of the day. The reverend, mostly casual in tenor, asked the obediently assembled Democrats about issues ranging from the war in Iran to the advent of artificial intelligence, while pressing them on civil rights issues central to NAN’s mission, including access to voting and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

And then there was the 2028 question.

“Listen, I might, I might. I’m thinking about it,” Harris told the reverend when asked if she’ll run, her most explicit public acknowledgement she’s weighing a bid since her 2024 loss. “I’ll keep you posted,” she said. The candidates gave a range of coy answers when asked about a bid, but didn’t play as hard-to-get as potential candidates in past cycles did this far out from the election.

Buttigieg also strongly hinted at a second run for president. Sharpton recalled having lunch with Buttigieg at the iconic Sylvia’s Restaurant in Harlem during his 2020 bid. “Just so my calendar’s clear, should I be reserving a table at Sylvia’s, are you going to run again?” Sharpton asked Buttigieg on stage. “You save me a seat. I’ll be there,” he told the reverend.

“I think it's really important for [the possible candidates] to come here and not take the Black and Brown vote for granted,” New Jersey Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver said in an interview on the sidelines of the convention.

Black voters make up a huge chunk of Democratic primary voters, and have vaulted past nominees, from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama to Joe Biden, to the nomination. The diligent attendance of many top 2028 candidates shows their strong interest in wooing those voters — as well as in trying to reverse the inroads Trump made in 2024 with Black voters, when he nearly doubled his support from 2020.

Gallego said in an interview that he “certainly” thinks the Democratic Party has taken Black voters for granted in past elections, “in terms of at least some of the outreach and maybe some of the assumptions that they’re just going to automatically be able to get the same amount of vote.”

“Making that effort really matters,” said Gallego, who is Latino.

On stage, Gallego said Democrats need to provide voters, particularly working-class voters, with an economic vision — and follow through on it. Kelly said Democrats have to focus on affordability to rebuild the coalition. And Harris encouraged the assembled Black voters to press Democrats by being “transactional” with their vote.

“Get yours. Vote and say, ‘I’m voting because I expect something out of this.’” she told Sharpton onstage. “I’m saying it’s okay to also give people permission to be transactional, and to say, if you will get my vote, this is what I expect. I expect to get something out of this.”

Beshear, who made his appearance on Saturday afternoon before jetting down to Atlanta to keynote the Georgia Democratic Party’s annual fundraising dinner, said that showing up at events like Sharpton’s illustrates “a desire by the Democratic Party to listen, to respond” to Black communities.

"I recognize that I will never feel the weight of discrimination, I'll never have to bear the burdens of a legacy of slavery and segregation and Jim Crow, but I can listen, I can learn, and I can surround myself with the types of leaders that can lift everyone up and leave no one behind,” Beshear, who is white, told POLITICO in an impromptu press gathering after his mainstage conversation with Sharpton.

Moore told POLITICO on the sidelines it was important to speak at the convention to remind voters that “in this moment, it’s important for all of us to understand our own power.” Pritzker drew cheers from the crowd as he described his home state’s history of elevating Black elected officials — and his role in sending another Black woman a step closer to serving in the Senate.

Sharpton’s annual gathering was held in a series of adjoining ballrooms on the windowless second floor of a Midtown Manhattan hotel. Attendees floated in and out of the main convention hall and between sessions, mingled in the lobby a floor below, where high schoolers from across the country coincidentally gathered for a spring break Model UN conference and band confab.

That made it hard to gauge how enthusiastic attendees were about some speakers relative to others given the constant ebb and flow of people at the event hall between sessions — except for when Harris was slated to speak. The former vice president packed the space to capacity over an hour before she even appeared onstage.

In conversations with over a dozen voters who attended the event, no one potential candidate stood out as an overwhelming favorite. Instead, at this early juncture of the shadow primary, voters are still keeping their options open as some weigh what kind of candidates can even win nationwide.

Early polling shows Harris leading the field of prospective candidates, likely boosted by her significant name recognition from her four years as vice president and her two previous presidential campaigns.

Moore, another possible 2028 contender still introducing himself to a national audience, also received a warm reception. The crowd applauded when he declared, “While I will work with anyone, I will bow to no one,” and laughed when he responded to a 2028 question with: “I’m hungry, but I’m not thirsty.”

Booker, unlike his fellow Democrats who engaged in conversation with Sharpton on the mainstage, addressed the room solo on his feet, energizing the crowd as he highlighted the power of grassroots organizing and stressing the need to address inequities, including Black homeownership and unemployment. He ended his remarks by taking a selfie alongside Sharpton with the audience.