Former Vice President Kamala Harris accused the Trump administration of being historically ineffective and unethical. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey urged Democrats not to be derailed by their internal disagreements. And Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky said the party could lure back working-class voters by focusing on kitchen-table issues.
The 2028 presidential shadow primary arrived in the swing state of Michigan on Saturday, with several potential Democratic candidates test-driving their pitches before a crowd of party activists eager to turn the page on President Trump.
The Democrats’ remarks at a Women’s Caucus luncheon hosted by the Michigan Democratic Party are part of a weekend of programming in Detroit that will culminate with the state party’s convention on Sunday. Michigan has been pivotal in recent Democratic presidential primaries and general elections.
A week ago, the three potential candidates — and many more — gathered in New York for a convention that was the first of many Democratic auditions before what is expected to be a wide-open 2028 race. As they travel the country, these Democrats are delivering stump-speech-style messages that often include sharp criticisms of the president and his party.
“We are dealing with the most corrupt, callous and incompetent presidential administration in the history of the United States — period,” Ms. Harris, the 2024 nominee, said at the luncheon Saturday, decrying a war with Iran that “the American people do not want” and that she said had eroded the nation’s global standing.
Mr. Booker, who ran for president in 2020, called for Democrats to unify going into the midterm elections, saying that the Trump administration was inflicting a “terrible storm” on Americans through its handling of immigration, the economy and the Iran war.
“Our kryptonite is division,” Mr. Booker said, adding that the party should have a “robust dialogue” during the primary season but should not allow its disagreements to bleed into the general election. “I’ve seen it too much in our party.”
He said some Democrats turned away from Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Ms. Harris in 2024 because they disagreed with them on a sliver of the issues. (Ms. Clinton and Ms. Harris both narrowly lost Michigan to Mr. Trump.) “You may disagree with her on 10 percent of her views,” Mr. Booker said of voters who did not turn out for Ms. Harris. “But you let someone get in office who you disagree with on everything.”
Mr. Beshear downplayed his own remarks, calling Ms. Harris the “star of the show.” But he offered himself as “living, breathing proof” that Democrats could “win in places that you don’t expect,” emphasizing that Mr. Trump carried his state by 31 percentage points.
“We do it by recognizing that when most people wake up in the morning, they’re not thinking about politics,” Mr. Beshear said. “They’re thinking about their jobs, and whether they make enough to support their family.”
Later Friday, Mr. Beshear spoke at a fund-raising dinner honoring Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. He described Mr. Trump as “out of control, unchecked and unhinged.”
“I believe that Donald Trump won because he was able to convince that last group of undecided voters that he’d be less focused on culture war issues and more focused on lowering costs and addressing inflation,” Mr. Beshear said. “Now I don’t think that that was fair. But it’s also the exact opposite of what he’s doing right now.”
Ms. Whitmer focused on the midterms in her remarks, saying that “Michigan is in the spotlight” and that “the stakes just don’t get higher than this.”
Seen by some Democrats as a potential 2028 contender, Ms. Whitmer has not been as overt as others in expressing interest in a run. “I anticipate helping, but I don’t know if I’m going to be the person,” she said last fall.
Michigan, a perennial swing state with a diverse electorate, has played a central role in past Democratic presidential primaries. In 2020, Joseph R. Biden Jr. took firm command of the Democratic presidential race with a decisive win over Senator Bernie Sanders in Michigan. (Michigan Democrats have pushed for their state to be placed at the start of the party’s 2028 presidential primary calendar.)
The state has also been at the center of some of Democrats’ most divisive debates. In the 2024 presidential primary, about one in eight voters in Michigan voted “uncommitted” as part of a protest of Mr. Biden’s approach to the war in Gaza. (He was running for re-election at the time.)
In recent months, Ms. Harris and Mr. Booker have undertaken national book tours, fueling 2028 speculation. At the convention in New York, Ms. Harris said she “might” run, and Mr. Booker brushed aside a question about 2028 by saying he was focused on “present action.”
In interviews, attendees at the luncheon on Saturday were split as to whether Ms. Harris should run again. Antoinette Wallace, 46, a Macomb County commissioner from Mount Clemens, said, “I honestly don’t think she should.”
Ms. Harris “gave all that she could” in 2024, Ms. Wallace said. “But I think the United States has already shown her that there’s not a lot of support where it’s needed,” she continued.
One Democrat and potential presidential candidate who lives in Michigan, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who ran in 2020, was not in the state on Saturday. Instead, he made a weekend tour through Kansas and Oklahoma, telling voters that “there is no such thing as a permanently red state.”
In Detroit, one luncheon attendee, Jennifer Austin, 50, suggested that she was far from deciding whom she might support in 2028.
“I’m not picking my favorites right now,” Ms. Austin said, adding, “We could have somebody that completely comes out of the woodwork.”
