Who is the next Barack Obama? Democrats hope to find out in 2028

As Democrats gather this week to celebrate the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, they’re also confronting a question that has loomed over the party since the former president left office nearly a decade ago: Who is the next Barack Obama? 

The answer remains elusive. 

In 2008, former President Obama electrified voters with his “hope and change” message, building a massive coalition that reached across generations, races and different regions around the nation.

Obama, who was seen as one of the best political orators in decades, brought record turnout and reshaped not just the Democratic Party but the zeitgeist. 

Since then, Democrats acknowledge even as they have produced solid candidates and won the 2020 presidential election, they have failed to replicate the combination of political X factor, cultural appeal and generational energy that catapulted Obama to the White House. 

“Barack Obama was a generational candidate,” said Democratic strategist Steve Schale, who ran Obama’s successful Florida operation in 2008. “But there is no Obama 2.0 or Obama 3.0 in the way that Obama wasn’t Clinton 2.0 nor was Clinton a John Kennedy 2.0. Each of those men owned their own moments.”

Democratic strategist Eddie Vale used the New York Knicks victory in the NBA Finals with MVP Jalen Brunson to draw an Obama analogy.  

“Easier said than done to say, ‘Why can’t we just have Brunson walk out and win us a title?’” Vale said. 

He then added that the 2028 primary “is going to be the crucible to see who is the right person to meet this time and moment.” 

The 2028 primary, Democrats say, could emulate the 2008 primary won by Obama mostly........

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