The sudden power vacuum at the top of the Democratic Party has created a fresh competition to steer the Democratic ship through the political wilderness. A melange of contenders has emerged from across the Democratic sweep: Squad sisters, media mouths, graying senators, and motley liberal luminaries vie for the influence and notoriety that come with being “the face” of the party. 

To be sure, there was no shortage of signs that the Democratic Party’s coalition was fraying in the Biden era. The party’s activist base split with Democratic leadership on a number of fronts: over arms deals with Israel, the merit of law enforcement and borders, and the depth of commitment to gender ideology and the Green New Deal. 

Before President Donald Trump’s decisive victory in November, only a shared hatred for him and love for abortion seemed to unite them. 

But Trump’s win shredded the glue that kept the party together, delegitimizing establishment leadership in the process. The various “houses” that have controlled the Democratic Party this century have all fallen to Trump’s sword. Team Obama failed to deliver the White House after commandeering the Kamala Harris campaign. The Clinton faction has moved into the private sector or aged out, with James Carville the lone surviving figure of political relevance. The Biden team, cast aside in humiliating fashion last summer, never had a tight grip on the party to begin with.

These power rankings hope to accurately capture the state of the race to lead the Resistance 2.0. Here is the board as it stands today:

10: Boss Hogg

David Hogg, the newly elected vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, has come a long way since first gaining notoriety as a student activist following the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Busting into the inner sanctum of Democratic politics less than two years removed from college is no small feat, though it isn’t clear if his rise has more to do with the party’s disarray than his political talent. 

He’d be higher if not for recent headlines, including reports that he’s been using the DNC’s phone list to solicit donations for his personal political action committee. But if you ask me, that just proves he knows how to play politics like a true donkey. 

9: Chuckles 

This might be low for a highly visible Senate minority leader, but Chuck Schumer’s glow has never been duller. In the span of a month, he’s been clowned by Jon Stewart and mocked by former Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) as “depressing” for chanting “we will win” with other senior citizens outside of the Treasury. He’s also under investigation for blatantly threatening Supreme Court Justices at an abortion rights rally — and indictment isn’t unrealistic.

Schumer only makes the rankings at all because of his considerable institutional power. But you have to think Schumer’s twilight is looming. 

8: The Nutty Professor

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is sizzling mad and wants you to know it. She’s mad about DOGE dicing up her beloved Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ability to sue drug companies, and Pete Hegseth prioritizing lethality over social justice in the armed forces. She’s piping hot about the Disney-Fubo deal.

In February, Warren stuck her angry mug in front of every camera she could find. Trump and Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk pop champagne each time. 

7: Stephen A. Smith

Smith, the frenzied sports commentator teasing a celebrity White House run, gets no nickname because he at least appears serious. So far, he’s running the Trump 2016 playbook by leveling tough truths at his party, particularly on the transgender issue, and wielding the sort of unfiltered authenticity that voters currently crave. 

Last week, Carville, the ultimate party insider, warned Smith to “stick to sports.” Not long ago, Republican insiders told Trump to stick to reality TV. 

Smith is already polling above household Democratic names such as Sen. Corey Booker (D-NJ) and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. 

6: Princess Jasmine

In February, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) said she’s rooting for Canada and Mexico against the U.S., banning men from competing in women’s sports “doesn’t protect women,” and that Republicans are “less educated folks.” On Tuesday, when asked outside the Capitol what she’d say to Elon Musk if they spoke directly, she brushed her hair from her eyes and said, “F*** off.”

In other words, Crockett has catapulted herself into the race to become the face of the party. Her penchant for virality has her arrow pointing up.

5: Pothole Pete

Former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg is the Democrats’ communicator par excellence. His preternatural calm and ability to make terrible ideas sound reasonable make him a valuable asset in these dark times. The gay and married war veteran was built in a Democratic candidate lab and fine-tuned at McKinsey and Co.

So why hasn’t Buttigieg taken the reins? Two reasons: 1. His record in government is abysmal, both as a mayor and a Transportation Secretary. 2. He’s a non-human cyborg. 

Appearing at a forum at the University of Chicago this week, Buttigieg slammed the Democrats’ approach to DEI for “making people sit through a training that looks like something out of ‘Portlandia.’” 

It’s a perfectly reasonable take, of course, and it’s obviously good politics in this climate. The problem is that he’s been one of DEI’s biggest supporters. He frequently touted his commitment to “equity” during his run at Transportation and famously decried the “racism” built into our highway system. 

The sudden shift elicited ire from the Left and groaning from the Right. The episode distilled Buttigieg’s struggle to grab the Democratic mantle despite looking and sounding the part.  

4: Cuban?

Billionaire Mark Cuban is one of only a handful of high-profile liberals outside the party establishment who commands headlines and a massive audience at will. And despite recently morphing into Rachel Maddow, he’s emerged as a fierce party critic in recent weeks, sharing the same lane as Smith but with billions to back it up.  

Appearing at the Principles First Summit in Washington, D.C. last week, Cuban said 2024 taught him that “Democrats can’t sell worth s***” and blasted their “democracy is on the ballot” pitch. “Voters didn’t give a f*** about J6 or abortion,” he added.

This immediately set the establishment press abuzz with 2028 speculation: Was Cuban implying that he was the party’s best pitchman? 

“Hell no. It’s not going to happen,” Politico reported him saying.

But if he changed his mind, he’d shoot to the top in a hurry. 

3: Bern, baby, Bern!

Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) hasn’t aged a day since his runs for president in 2016 and 2020, has he? I mean, he looked old back then, too. But he hasn’t lost much on his fastball. 

Sanders has been liberated following the establishment’s implosion. “It should come as no surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working-class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,” he stated the day after Kamala Harris’s defeat. And he has every right to gloat: He read the Trump-era electorate accurately and saw this coming. They didn’t. 

In late February, Sanders hit the road with his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour in Omaha, where he railed against wealth inequality and framed the current political struggle as between working families and billionaires like Elon Musk. It isn’t a fresh take, but it has a better shot at meeting the needs than anything else Democrats are currently doing. 

And while Sanders is likely too old to lead the party, the fierce loyalty he still commands could make him the party’s most sought-after kingmaker. 

2. The Salad Spinner

Did you know that Kamala is still out there talking about… something? About once a week, a video emerges of Harris attempting to connect a dot to a small crowd of loyalists who painfully nod along, hoping, waiting, please God, just make her stop.

Here’s what she said a couple of weeks ago backstage at a Broadway show: “Look at what I mean this beautiful play and everything we know at the end… we have to be cleared-eyed. We’re seeing a U-turn right now. For those rights to be maintained which means we have to be vigilant. It’s just the nature of it. We have to be clear-eyed. And it doesn’t mean we don’t see the beauty in everything. These things all co-exist, but I believe we fight for something, not against.”

Even her scripted remarks at the 2025 NAACP Image Awards last week were barely decipherable. 

And yet – and yet! – the early 2028 Democratic primary polls have her obliterating the field at this point. 

That alone is enough to put her at or near the top of these rankings — for now. But in truth, it’s impossible to predict her political future. So many divergent paths feel plausible, from making a strong push to recapture the Democratic nomination to accepting the presidency of a small liberal arts college. But as long as her polling remains high, she is. 

1: The Bronx Bomber

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) plays across Democratic factions — the activists, the suburban lib-moms, the late-night talkers, and the rising podcasters — better than any other figure. Her combination of youth (already a political veteran, she’s only 35), magnetism, and political savvy has enabled her to maintain her broad appeal among Democrats despite near constant derision from the Right over the past six years.

The Republican obsession with her boosts her already unmatched visibility in the same way the Democratic obsession with Trump keeps him perpetually in the headlines. And in this political environment, visibility is power. She knows that, and she knows how to wield it. 

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In February, two of the rising Left’s media gatekeepers, Mehdi Hasan and MSNBC’s Jen Psaki, all but crowned her as the party’s leader, the former praising her confrontation with Tom Homan, the latter scolding party elders for passing over the “young, fearless, connected” AOC to lead the House Oversight Committee. 

But the slight only further cemented her status as the face of the next generation of Democrats.