California Gov. Gavin Newsom has emerged as the top candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028, a new poll found, as Newsom’s popularity has surged amid his ongoing feud with President Trump.
The Yahoo/YouGov poll, released Thursday, found that 21 percent of registered Democratic voters and Democratic-leaning voters identified the Golden State leader, who has not formally announced plans to run for president, as their preferred nominee in 2028.
Former Vice President Harris, who lost to Trump in the 2024 election after a truncated campaign that followed then-President Biden’s withdrawal from the race, came in second in the latest survey with 19 percent support.
Others rounding out the Democrats’ wish list in the latest survey included New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (12 percent), former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (10 percent), Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (7 percent), Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (each at 4 percent) and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (2 percent).
A separate Economist/YouGov poll released in April found Harris as the top Democratic pick with 29 percent, while about 8 percent of respondents preferred Newsom — tracking near even with Buttigieg (9 percent) and Ocasio-Cortez (7 percent).
Newsom’s national profile has risen in recent months, as he has led a redistricting push in California to counter Texas’s efforts to draw more GOP-friendly congressional maps. He also has amped up his criticism of Trump, even mimicking the president’s often combative social media tactics.
The new poll found that respondents’ overall perceptions of Newsom as a politician were similar to overall views of Trump, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term.
About 31 percent of all voters surveyed had a favorable view of Newsom to 41 percent unfavorable, but Democrats overwhelmingly shared more positive opinions of the California governor, with 62 percent favorable to 14 percent unfavorable.
Trump’s overall favorable rating came in at 42 percent favorable to 56 percent unfavorable, with Republican voters’ views mostly positive at 89 percent favorable to 10 percent unfavorable, according to the data.
However, pollsters found that younger Democrats surveyed — those under 45 years old — prefer both Harris (27 percent) and Ocasio-Cortez (22 percent) over Newsom (13 percent) as their party’s potential 2028 pick.
The YouGov/Yahoo poll surveyed 1,690 U.S. adults online from Aug. 29 to Sept. 2. The margin of error is 3.1 percentage points.
