Obama's Campaign Manager's 2028 Scouting Report
Jon sits down with legendary Democratic strategist David Plouffe to assess the race for the Senate and House and — why not? — look forward to 2028. The two talk through the new roster of early primary states and the political dynamics at play in each, and then do some (very) early handicapping of the rumored '28 contenders, from Kamala Harris to AOC and Jon Ossoff.Hate listening to ads? Become a Friends of the Pod subscriber for ad-free episodes of Pod Save America, Pod Save the World, Lovett or Leave It, Runaway Country, Offline with Jon Favreau, and more—plus exclusive content, including bonus episodes of Pod Save America. Subscribe now at crooked.com/friends, on Apple Podcasts, or through the Pod Save America YouTube channel.You can request a transcript by emailing [email protected]. Include the podcast name, episode title, and air date. Please allow 48 hours for delivery.
- Duration
- 1h 4m
- Broadcast on
- 30 Aug 2026
- Audio Format
- other
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(upbeat music) - Welcome to Plaids Ava America, I'm John Favre. Today I'm joined by my old friend and colleague, David Pluff, the former White House senior advisor to Barack Obama, as well as his 2008 campaign manager, and a senior advisor to Kamala Harris's 107 day campaign. Pluff's one of the smartest and most committed people I've ever met in democratic politics. So when I saw that he published a piece in the New York Times about the democratic party's new early state calendar and how he thinks it will fundamentally reshape the 2028 primary, I had a million questions I wanted to ask him. I first got his thoughts on the final stretch of the 2026 midterms and what he thinks Democrats need to do to close the deal with voters and all the key states and races. And then we dug into the 2028 primary, which believe it or not, we'll basically begin the day after the midterms are over. We talked about the calendar, strategy, and he had some interesting things to say about some of the potential candidates like AOC, John Ossoff, and Kamala Harris. It was, as it always is with Pluff, a great conversation that I could have kept going for hours. We'll get to it in a minute, but before we do, please consider becoming a paying subscriber to Friends of the Pod. Subscribers get access to ad-free episodes of this show, Pod Save America and all of your favorite crooked pods, as well as special subscriber exclusive shows like our extra episode of Pod Save America, Pod Save America Only Friends, where this week, Love It and Dan broke down Darlene Graham's win in South Carolina and lots more. If you wanna check it out and get access to even more, newsletters, discounted crooked con tickets, all kinds of good stuff, head on over to crooked.com/friends to subscribe. All right, here's David Pluff. David Pluff, welcome back to Pod Save America. - Mr. Favreau, it's always good to be with you. - You too. I looked at, last time you were on was January, and you and Pfeiffer talked about the Democratic brand, which has now been completely rehabilitated. (laughing) But I was gonna ask, now that the first ballots are set to go out next week, how much progress do you think the party has made
Transcription truncated.
Jon sits down with legendary Democratic strategist David Plouffe to assess the race for the Senate and House and — why not? — look forward to 2028. The two talk through the new roster of early primary states and the political dynamics at play in each, and then do some (very) early handicapping of the rumored '28 contenders, from Kamala Harris to AOC and Jon Ossoff.Hate listening to ads? Become a Friends of the Pod subscriber for ad-free episodes of Pod Save America, Pod Save the World, Lovett or Leave It, Runaway Country, Offline with Jon Favreau, and more—plus exclusive content, including bonus episodes of Pod Save America. Subscribe now at crooked.com/friends, on Apple Podcasts, or through the Pod Save America YouTube channel.You can request a transcript by emailing [email protected]. Include the podcast name, episode title, and air date. Please allow 48 hours for delivery.