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Potential presidential candidates are already looking to build a donor network ahead of formally entering the race next year

The 2028 Democratic presidential primary race won’t begin in earnest until after November’s midterm elections. But speed dating is already well under way among prospective candidates and major donors on Wall Street and elsewhere.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.), former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro are among those who have met with wealthy investors and financiers in recent months.

The flirtations are risky. Wall Street and wealth are viewed with great suspicion among many of the progressives likely to play a significant role in picking the party’s nominee, and taxing the rich and bashing capitalism have become a rallying cry for many of them. Wall Street has nonetheless long been a significant source of money for the party, and that will continue to be the case in this year’s midterm election and in 2028.

With no clear standard-bearer, many Democrats anticipate a crowded primary field that could grow as large as, if not larger, than the 2019-20 lineup of more than two dozen candidates—and potential 2028 contenders are looking for early advantages. The early meetings with donors are happening quietly, including over meals near Wall Street and in Midtown conference rooms. They are also playing out in Silicon Valley and other U.S. wealth centers.

Some power players in the finance and business world are putting together a new Wall Street-heavy donor group to hold private listening sessions with potential candidates, according to people familiar with the matter.

Centerview Partners co-founder Blair Effron; Joshua Steiner, a partner at investment firm SSW Partners; former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who is now chairman of the private-equity firm Warburg Pincus; Blackstone Vice Chairman Tom Nides; and former Oracle President Charles Phillips are among the executives that are part of the group, the people said. One of the goals for some of the organizers is for a younger generation of financiers to have the chance to meet with candidates and for them to potentially help raise campaign cash. The group has been meeting since late last year to discuss the 2028 Democratic field.

Effron, a longtime bridge between Wall Street and Democrats, has played a central fundraising role in multiple presidential elections.

Emanuel, who has had his own stints working for Wall Street, including becoming a senior adviser at Centerview after returning to the U.S. in 2025 from his Japan ambassadorship, has been among the potential presidential contenders already engaging with longtime business community acquaintances about a bid.

During the first half of April, Emanuel huddled with four veteran investors to make his case for a potential presidential run. Over boxed lunches in a Midtown office, he noted that Trump and Republicans’ favorability ratings have tumbled in recent polling. That discontent, he said, could provide an opening for a more moderate voice like his to unite Democrats and defeat the Republican nominee.

Among those at the lunch: hedge-fund manager John Petry and Boykin Curry, a former managing director at investment firm Eagle Capital. Petry, whom Emanuel said he first met about three months ago, is a major Democratic donor who has backed former Vice President Kamala Harris and numerous House and Senate candidates and allied committees.

“John Petry reached out to me and said, ‘I love what you are saying about education. Would you meet?’” Emanuel, a longtime party fundraiser, recounted. He said of the donors he met with for lunch, “I’m the only person they haven’t contributed to.” Petry and Curry confirmed the meeting.

The former White House chief of staff and congressman has also spoken with Avenue Capital CEO Marc Lasry, someone he has been close to for more than two decades, about possibly running for president, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

Emanuel, who is flooding his party with proposals as he seeks to influence the Democratic policy debate, has called for, among other things, a mandatory retirement age of 75 for presidents, cabinet officials, members of Congress and federal judges.

Kelly, a former astronaut, sat down recently for a dinner in New York with a party fundraiser and attorney who specializes in corporate bankruptcies, according to a person familiar with the matter. His message was clear: He is seriously considering running for president in a field that is likely to be sizable. A Kelly spokesman pointed to his past remarks about contemplating a presidential bid and declined to comment further.

The dinner, on the sidelines of Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network convention, is the sort of meeting most of the prospective candidates will need to have in the coming months to build early support for presidential bids likely to be announced during the first half of 2027.

Beshear said in a meeting with a Chicago-based Democratic fundraiser that he believes the 2028 election needs to feature Democrats who better appeal to middle-class voters, adding that candidates need to have concrete policies that can improve people’s lives, according to the person who met with him. The fundraiser, a securities lawyer, said Beshear didn’t rule out running for president.

Beshear has political cover for ramping up his donor meetings. He is this year’s Democratic Governors Association chairman and one of that job’s primary roles is to raise money for his party’s 2026 races for governor. A Beshear aide declined to comment.

Shapiro also met with Lasry last year, according to a person familiar with the matter. An aide to Shapiro, who recently published a new memoir ahead of a possible presidential bid, declined to comment.

Like Beshear, Shapiro has potential reasons besides 2028 to increase his meetings with donors. He is up for re-election this year in a large and costly state and is also working to help other Pennsylvania Democrats running for office.

One potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate who might not have to as aggressively court big-donor money is Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. The billionaire, an heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, is running for a third term this year and spent more than $300 million to self-fund his first two gubernatorial campaigns. Aides didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The consternation over Trump’s rise and lingering frustration over Harris’s loss has triggered extensive early planning among wealthy donors ahead of the presidential election.

The talks among wealthy Democratic donors about the state of the 2028 race were top of mind earlier this year during Democratic National Committee’s spring donor retreat in Park City, Utah, according to an attendee.

At the meeting, wealthy donors started putting together a list of potential candidates based on private conversations and public comments. With no incumbent or obvious front-runner, the future field could include as many as two dozen contenders, ranging from governors to former cabinet secretaries and members of the House and Senate.