CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten on Monday said Democrats are in a dark place because they have no power or an heir apparent in the wake of Vice President Harris’s loss in the presidential race.
Democrats also lost the Senate majority, and the GOP appears poised to hold the House majority, though by a narrow margin.
“Everywhere you look, the Democrats are in this deep, dark state because they have no heir apparent, the incumbent president’s unpopular, and they hold no levers of power in Washington, most likely, come January,” Enten told CNN anchor John Berman.
“The bottom line is this: For Democrats, there’s no real light at the end of the tunnel. It’s always darkest before it’s pitch black,” Enten added, attributing that line to the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
Enten said Democrats have no clear front-runner to launch a 2028 presidential bid, which is evidenced by the early polling data.
“There’s no heir apparent,” Enten said. “We can see this perhaps best by … taking a look at the early poll leader for 2028: There isn’t one. There’s no early favorite there. There’s no early clear favorite, and that is really unusual.”
Enten made the argument that the last time Democrats had no “heir apparent” was ahead of the 1992 presidential race. In that cycle, then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton beat a crowded field to become the party’s presidential nominee. He went on to win the presidency, becoming the first Democrat to do so at that time in 12 years.
Enten argued that President Biden was the “clear heir apparent” in 2017, heading into the 2020 race. Biden was passed over as the Democratic nominee in 2016 because he did not run, and then-President Obama threw his support to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Enten argued that Clinton was in a similar situation in 2005, ahead of the 2008 race, and then again in 2013, when she was the front-runner for the 2016 race.
“How about Al Gore going into the 2000 campaign? Or ’04? Again, the clear heir apparent,” Enten continued. “You have to go all the way back, all the way back to the 1992 campaign … where there was no clear heir apparent.”
“This is going to be the first cycle, it seems,” Enten said, “since going back all the way to [the] late ’80s, early 1990s, in which there is no clear, early front-runner for the next Democratic nomination.”
Berman pushed back, suggesting Democrats might benefit from lacking a clear front-runner at this point.
“I will say the Democrats won this one,” Berman said, pointing to the 1992 race.
Pointing to the 2008 race, with Hillary Clinton as the front-runner, Berman said, “And in this one, where they did have an heir apparent, they ended up winning when it wasn’t that person. So maybe they’re better off.”
Obama defeated Clinton in that Democratic primary.
Enten echoed that sentiment.
“Maybe they’re better off. Because remember, Hillary Clinton, even though she was seen to be the heir apparent going into the 2008 campaign, of course it was Barack Obama, who basically came out of nowhere, after that ’04 convention speech, to go on and win the nomination,” Enten said.
“So it might actually be good news for Democrats that there’s no heir apparent, but the bottom line is there isn’t one,” he added.
A number of names have been discussed as potential Democratic presidential candidates for 2028. They include Govs. Gavin Newsom of California, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and JB Pritzker of Illinois.
