Democratic presidential candidates set to court Black voters at Sharpton’s NAN Convention

A parade of potential 2028 presidential contenders is set to take the stage this week at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN) Convention for an early audition aimed at courting Black voters, one of the Democratic Party’s most powerful constituencies. 

In a party where Black voters have repeatedly shaped the outcome of the Democratic primary, the gathering will offer a rare and early opportunity for the candidates — including former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro — to begin building credibility with the voting bloc. 

“Black voters are a core — if not the core — group of constituents in the Democratic coalition and this is the first time these candidates are going to be sized up,” Democratic strategist Joel Payne said. “It’s a chance to reset narratives, and set what your public profile might be.” 

The event, Payne added, will “start to give you a sense of what this field is going to look like.” 

At the epicenter of the event is Harris — the 2024 Democratic nominee who inherited the campaign after then-President Biden exited the race. She arrives as the most prominent figure in the field of would-be candidates, with deep ties to Black voters who helped bolster her campaign. 

“She is the pace car,” Payne said. “She is where the story starts.” 

But her appearance is set against a backdrop of lingering questions about how she would navigate a crowded primary. 

Her appearance in many ways offers Harris — who has been on a months-long book tour — to reassert her standing, while testing the strength of that support at a time when Democrats are searching for a standard-bearer of the party. 

“Harris is best known and likely most favored by the audience but some voters, particularly younger ones, wonder if she should run again despite how well she campaigned last summer,” said Democratic strategist Basil Smikle, who served as the executive director of the New York State Democratic Party. 

In recent days, Sharpton himself has indicated that he thinks a Harris run would be a good idea. 

“I wouldn’t ignore the fact that she’s absolutely a potent force in the Black community,” Sharpton told Politico, but he added that he did “not have any idea whether she’s going to try to go again.”

The NAN event also represents a critical opportunity for other potential candidates to reconnect, including Buttigieg, who struggled to gain traction with Black voters during his 2020 presidential bid. At one point during the 2020 race, over lunch in Harlem, New York, Buttigieg even sought guidance from Sharpton in an effort to broaden his appeal.

In the years following the 2020 race, Buttigieg still had trouble reaching Black voters. One Emerson College poll last year showed zero percent of Black respondents said they would support him.

Since then, Buttigieg has made some inroads with Black voters, but strategists say he needs to do more if he wants to win the nomination. 

“This is still a weak spot for him, so an event like Sharpton’s matters,” one Democratic strategist said. 

It’s also a chance for other contenders — a good number of them moderates who would like to bring the party back to the center — to test messages on the economy and also the war in Iran.

A number of Democratic governors — including JB Pritzker of Illinois and Andy Beshear of Kentucky — will appear in “fireside chats” throughout the week, looking to build early relationships with Black voters and demonstrate fluency on issues that resonate beyond their home states.

“For other candidates this is an opportunity to articulate how as president they’d restore much of what [President] Trump and Republicans dismantled and how they’d institute new supportive policies,” Smikle said. 

Still, Smikle added, “Being anti Trump won’t be enough.”

The event also comes as Democrats have wrestled over the idea of what kind of candidate can win in 2028. Some strategists have argued that the party will need to appeal to a wider swath of voters — including moderates and soft Republicans — while others maintain that energizing the party’s base — particularly Black voters — remains the most reliable path to victory. 

In the days following Harris’s loss in 2024, Democrats — including Black and Latino strategists — openly questioned whether the party would be better positioned with a more traditional candidate at the top of the ticket, particularly after two losses by women at the presidential level. 

Strategists expect the topic to come up at NAN. 

“The talk in some Democratic circles that the nominee should be a white male is something Harris and Black voters must contend with,” Smikle said. “Despite the assessment being shortsighted and insulting, in my view, it’s still a widely shared view that needs to be addressed somehow.” 

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