Inside the Breakfast Club: the hottest circuit for future Dem presidential hopefuls

CHICAGO – Pete Buttigieg was taking selfies in the hallway. Cory Booker was roaring from on top of a table. Josh Shapiro was waiting in the wings. Gretchen Whitmer was late for her next breakfast.

It was the second day of the Democratic National Convention , and the party’s up-and-comers were darting from hotel to hotel. The morning meetings for state party delegations were a prime opportunity for a generation-in-waiting of Democratic talent to try out stump speeches on seasoned activists.

With the current Democratic ticket locked in , the party faithful are looking to the future. Their bench of potential candidates runs deep, and in Chicago, the party’s biggest names jostled for a head start.

Over their coffee, eggs and pastries, Democrats heard from the likes of Maryland Gov. Wes Moore , Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and California Rep. Ro Khanna.

They've learned from bitter experience.

After former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s stunning loss to Donald Trump eight years ago, Democrats are preparing for a scenario in which their next contested presidential primary is held as soon as in 2028. Vice President Kamala Harris is in a tight race against Trump and could lose to the former president this November.

“This is a jump ball election. I’m all in. But it’s very close. And one thing we did in 2016 was, I think, take our eye off the ball for a little bit, and got a little bit overconfident,” said Alan Rubin, a New Jersey delegate and former Clinton administration official.

“There’s a possibility that we don’t win," Rubin, 70, said, "and if we don’t, now you’re in a race for 2028, and all of these folks are going to be in it.”

The party was already blindsided once this year, by President Joe Biden’s horrendous debate and subsequent exit from the 2024 campaign. His elevation of Harris, who could win and run for reelection, interrupted many rising Democratic stars’ professional timelines.

For some, the presidency could be off the table. Others may be waiting until 2032.

They're all preemptively assessing the landscape. Delegates from states with early presidential primaries were top targets.

At a Tuesday breakfast for South Carolina’s delegation, sweat dripped from Booker’s brow as he delivered a compelling performance. The New Jersey senator spoke passionately about a letter the vice president asked him to write to a young Black woman in his life when Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed to the Supreme Court.

“And so South Carolina, right now, I'm going to summon the spirit of Kamala Harris on that fateful day, and I'm going to ask you in this room right now to write your letter with 70 plus days left,” he shouted.

Booker had been preceded by Buttigieg, one of his 2019 presidential primary opponents. A potential rival was up next: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a rising Democratic star.

Shapiro began his remarks with a story about another time, at a Baptist church in Philadelphia, that he had to speak immediately after Booker.

“He's halfway through his remarks, and he's fired up and ready to go. And my daughter leans over to me and says, 'Dad, what the hell are you going to say?' I said, 'Sweetie, never say hell in a church,'” Shapiro told delegates to big laughs. “I got up and did my damnedest to follow him, and I can't believe I'm now being cursed to have to do that again.”

The early candidates get the activists

The Hyatt Regency Chicago packed a big punch. So did the Westin on Michigan Ave.

Politicians concentrated on state delegations with the largest blocs of potential voters, and the ones whose primaries have traditionally had the most influence. New Hampshire, Georgia, South Carolina, Nevada and Michigan were particularly hot.

Buttigieg, who is Biden's Transportation secretary, on Monday spent almost 15 minutes at the New Hampshire delegation breakfast, one of several that was located inside the Westin. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar hit New Hampshire later in the week. So did Moore, Khanna, Booker, Pritzker and Shapiro.

“I hear we serve the best eggs. I think that’s really the reason,” New Hampshire Party Chair Ray Buckley said in an interview.

In the past, Buckley said, getting party members to come to breakfast was a challenge.

He attributes the increased interest in part to the makeup of this year’s delegation. Buckley said that 92% of New Hampshire’s delegates were first-time convention goers.

From the young to the old, excitement over breakfast speakers was driving turnout to the sometimes ho-hum events.

Ellie Goluboff-Schragger, a 20-year-old delegate from Philadelphia, was excited for newer Democratic talents like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Buttigieg and Shapiro.

“The cool and exciting thing about the next generation of Democrats that are coming up is that there are so many amazing – I mean, Pete Buttigieg is amazing – like there are so many incredible rising stars,” Goluboff-Schragger said.

The oldest delegate, Angie Gialloreto, 95, from Allegheny County, Penn., said she was enthused about the new blood. Of Shaprio, she had one prediction: “In due time, he will be president.”

Shapiro went to three breakfasts and a labor council meeting on Monday and hit two more on Tuesday. Shapiro told USA TODAY he was trying to “make sure folks know what we’re accomplishing in Pennsylvania.”

“But most importantly I want them to know how I feel about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” said Shapiro, who was a finalist in the Harris veepstakes .

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another A-list Democrat, stayed off the breakfast circuit and focused on giving televised interviews on behalf of the Harris campaign.

Appealing to a different crowd

Several potential candidates used the Chicago gathering to appeal to new crowds.

On Tuesday, Buttigieg, the first openly-gay presidential candidate, rushed into an event with roughly 150 social justice advocates, many of whom were Black or people of color.

He did a 20 minute interview with Portia Allen-Kyle, the managing director of Color Of Change, a progressive civil rights advocacy organization. Buttigieg told the audience that he is always thinking of the “long game” — at least in terms of policy – and discussed legislative priorities such as expanding the Child Tax Credit.

Buttigieg was a 2020 campaign star, tying for first in Iowa and placing second in New Hampshire. But he failed to gain traction among Black voters and dropped his campaign after a poor showing in South Carolina.

Black voters are key to the Democratic coalition and they, along with other traditionally marginalized voting blocs, are playing a growing role.

Democrats changed the order of their 2024 primaries to acknowledge voters of color. The party picked South Carolina to go first, at Biden’s request, followed by New Hampshire and Latino-heavy Nevada on the same day. It also tried to bump up Georgia and replaced Iowa in the early window with Michigan.

The calendar for the next presidential primary season is not set, but New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada have long had slots at the front.

“The demographics of the country have changed,” said Analilia Mejia, co-executive director of Center for Popular Democracy, a progressive advocacy group.

Democratic Rep. Summer Lee, the first Black woman from Pennsylvania elected to the House, warned Democrats not to write off other young politicians. “We're also going to meet a whole bunch of people who we don't know yet, right?” said Lee, a progressive Democrat and member of the “Squad.” “There are a whole bunch of Black and brown folks who are out there who have been carrying the party, and we haven't heard their voices yet.”

Moore, the first Black governor of Maryland, personifies that change. He had a top convention speaking slot.

He headlined three breakfasts in a row on Thursday. He told USA TODAY he made sure to fire up delegates from Nevada, a vital swing state, and New Hampshire, where there's an open governor's race.

‘I’m just being me’

While criss-crossing across Chicago to meet with delegates – and possibly future voters for their own presidential campaigns – the presidential hopefuls say it’s just part of their jobs.

Whitmer told the USA TODAY Network that every governor is meeting with other states to "give some encouragement to other caucuses and keep people jazzed up.”

“Maybe they just need like a little encouragement from a state that went from red to blue,” she added. “I don't know.”

Whitmer was among the Democratic politicians burning up breakfasts. North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina and Hawaii on Tuesday alone. At the Hawaii breakfast, she donned pink and white leis, and went person by person down a long selfie line.

Booker passed out buttons to his fans that proudly proclaimed they’d gotten a photo with him.

One of the national progressive movement’s brightest stars, Khanna, a 47-year-old congressman from Silicon Valley, was also extremely popular. He sponsored South Carolina’s breakfast on Tuesday and was the state's featured breakfast speaker the day before.

Khanna hit at least 14 breakfasts during the convention, including the battleground states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

The prominent Biden campaign surrogate is reprising that role on behalf of Harris, with planned stops in Nevada, Pennsylvania and Michigan, he told USA TODAY.

Plus, he said, “I think it’s always good to have exposure beyond your district.”

Contributing: Todd Spangler

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Inside the Breakfast Club: the hottest circuit for future Dem presidential hopefuls