Kamala Harris has posted strong numbers in most early 2028 surveys, and it seems inevitable that she’ll run for president. Yet her star, however dull it already was, is fading fast. Those numbers always reflected name recognition, and I never mistook them for grassroots support. She still leads the RealClearPolitics average for the 2028 Democrat nomination, but expect that to change.
Prediction market Kalshi now lists Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) as the Democrat frontrunner for 2028, and sure enough, he has become the new flavor of the month in the wake of the midterms.
The latest evidence came out of this weekend's Crooked Con convention, where a straw poll of leftist activists doubled as a referendum on the post-Kamala era. Ossoff took 38% of roughly 1,000 votes. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) finished second with 17%, and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg placed third with 14%.
2028 straw poll at Crooked Con has Ossoff first, AOC 2nd, Buttigieg 3rd
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) November 8, 2026
Also someone voted for Trump? pic.twitter.com/uEJGyTE9oy
Everyone else landed in single digits. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro each drew 4%. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore pulled 3% apiece, and even California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has been plotting his presidential run for years now, only managed 2.3%.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and first-term Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) have worked to raise their profiles, and both still finished under 1%. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) collected two votes.
And Kamala? She got 0.6%, good for a 16th-place tie with Slotkin.
Ouch.
The party's previous vice president and 2024 nominee couldn't crack 1% in a room full of the party's most engaged activists.
Ouch again.
But I’m not here to talk about Kamala. I’m actually here to talk about Ossoff because there’s no doubt Ossoff is rising since the midterms. Unfortunately for him, he still doesn't have a chance.
To understand why, go back to 2024, when Kamala was shopping for a running mate. Rumors had her eyeing Shapiro, and Republicans had real reason to worry about a popular governor from a critical battleground state joining her ticket. I never believed she'd pick him, and the reason had nothing to do with his record or his electability.
ICYMI: Greg Gutfeld Has a Theory About the Midterms
Back in August, Bill Maher sat down with CNN's Dana Bash on his show and spoke the blunt truth about his party. "Well, in the Democratic Party, as long as that faith isn't Jewish, you're good," Maher told her. Bash, clearly caught off guard, replied, "Well, you said it." Maher held his ground. "Yeah, I said it because it's true!" he said.
Sam Markstein, national political director and spokesman for the Republican Jewish Coalition, credited Maher for his honesty. "It's a rare occasion when we agree with Bill Maher, but he's right: there is only one party where American Jews can be proudly Jewish and loudly pro-Israel, and it's the Republican Party," Markstein said. "Democrats prove it again and again — from Kamala Harris passing over Josh Shapiro in 2024 to the rise of communist elected officials who traffic in antisemitism in halls of power across the country."
He added, "The Democratic Party is being remade by its radicalized base, and party leadership continues to fecklessly whistle past the political graveyard as American Jews flee."
That brings us back to Ossoff. With socialist candidates slowly taking over the party and antisemitism now mainstream within it, he's a nonstarter. He’d never survive a primary.
