Longtime Democratic political operative Rahm Emanuel offered a blistering assessment of his party in a Wall Street Journal article published Monday, calling the Democratic brand “toxic” and “weak and woke” as speculation mounts that he’ll run for president in 2028.
“I’m tired of sitting in the back seat when somebody’s gunning it at 90 miles an hour for a cliff,” Emanuel, 65, told the newspaper. “If you want the country to give you the keys to the car, somebody’s got to be articulating an agenda that’s fighting for America, not just fighting [President] Trump.”
The former Obama White House chief of staff, Chicago mayor, congress member and diplomat has been popping up across media outlets in recent weeks, voicing concerns about the Democratic Party’s direction after its loss in November and stoking speculation about his political future.
According to The Wall Street Journal’s report, he has secured contracts with CNN and The Washington Post to provide political commentary, spoke to moderate Democrats at a May retreat in Maryland and is slated to headline a fish fry in Iowa this fall.
The Journal described him as being “coy” about his next political steps but noted he appears to be tiptoeing toward a presidential campaign.
“Voters will be lucky,” Emanuel told the outlet of the next presidential race. “They’ll have a real debate — one we didn’t have in 2024.”
Democrats had advanced then-President Biden’s reelection bid with little resistance before he dropped out of the race in July, leaving then-Vice President Kamala Harris to take up the top-of-ticket slot against Trump.
Trump handily bested Harris with 312 electoral college votes to her 226, winning 49.9 percent of the popular vote to Harris’s 48.3 percent.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a recent interview with The Free Press that she believes Emanuel will seek the Democratic nomination in 2028.
Other Democrats on the long list of possible contenders include a slew of governors — California’s Gavin Newsom, Illinois’s JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro, Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer — as well as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Emanuel stressed in the latest interview that the Democratic Party should focus on more populist issues that resonate with voters and back away from the divisive culture wars that have driven their narrative in recent years.
“The American dream has become unaffordable. It’s inaccessible. And that has to be unacceptable to us,” he said. “The public’s not wrong. They figured it out. The system’s rigged. It’s corrupt.”