Kamala Harris just found out how much the left’s most devoted activists want her back. The answer: almost not at all. The former vice president pulled a measly 0.6% in a 2028 straw poll at the progressive Crooked Con convention this weekend, finishing 16th, while Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff ran away with it, the New York Post reports.
Ossoff took 38% of the roughly 1,000 votes cast. “Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came in second with 17%, and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was third at 14%. Everyone else landed in single digits: Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro at 4% each, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore at 3%, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom at 2.3%.
Then there was Harris, tied for 16th with first-term Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin. This is the woman who was the party’s 2024 nominee, and who, the Post notes, led by double digits in nearly every 2028 Democratic primary poll before the election. Notice who was in the room. Crooked Con is put on by Crooked Media, the outfit started by Obama administration alumni, and it brought together prominent liberal figures to talk about the future of the Democratic Party. These are the party’s most plugged-in voters, and they barely remembered her name.
To be fair to Harris, a convention straw poll is not a scientific survey. She still leads the RealClearPolitics average of national 2028 Democratic primary polls at 21.8%, with Newsom at 13.5% and Ossoff fifth at 10.8%. But the activists who knock doors and write checks have clearly started shopping for someone else.
And the man they picked says he doesn’t want the job. During a debate last month, Ossoff was asked whether he would commit to serving a full six-year Senate term. “Yes, I will,” he said. “I have zero interest in running for president. I’m running for Senate.” Ossoff, once considered the most vulnerable Democratic senator on the 2026 ballot, went on to trounce Republican Rep. Mike Collins, and that win has fueled talk of him as a 2028 contender.
According to the Post, Ossoff has also split with the far left on key issues, opposing Medicare for All, the Green New Deal and calls to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He has also opposed expanding the Supreme Court. The Crooked Con crowd just crowned a senator who rejects much of its own agenda.
This straw poll is a window into where the Democratic Party really is heading into 2028. The base has no loyalty to the candidate it rallied behind two years ago, its new favorite has sworn he isn’t running, and its activists are cheering a man who disagrees with them. For Kamala Harris, 0.6% is a brutal verdict from the people who were supposed to be her strongest supporters.
Source: nypost.com