Emanuel pushes back on ‘straight White man’ question, says ideas matter most in 2028
By Paul Steinhauser, Fox News
Rahm Emanuel is shrugging off the Democratic Party‘s identity debate and emphasizing that the showdown for the Democrats’ 2028 presidential nomination should be about ideas and not gender.
The former Chicago mayor and White House chief of staff to President Barack Obama is mulling a White House run of his own in 2028 in the race to succeed term-limited Republican President Donald Trump. But in a party that has made diversity one of its core tenets, Emanuel will have to face the question: will the Democratic Party elect a straight White male to represent it?
Emanuel told Fox News Digital on Monday that Democrats should be asking potential presidential contenders different questions entirely, such as: “Do you have the ideas of how to make sure the American Dream is alive and well, accessible and affordable to another generation?”
In the wake of former Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat to Trump in the 2024 election, former First Lady Michelle Obama made headlines late last year when she emphasized in a conversation posted on YouTube that the U.S. has “a lot of growing up to do” and that the nation is “not ready for a woman” as president.
And former President Joe Biden, in an interview last year on “The View,” argued that Harris lost to Trump because of sexism and racism.
Harris was the second female Democratic presidential nominee to come up short to Trump, following Hillary Clinton’s defeat in the 2016 election.
That’s got some in the Democratic Party suggesting that in order to recapture the White House in 2028, it might be better for the party to nominate a White male as their standard-bearer.
While Democrats take pride in their party’s diversity, an Axios article this past weekend, headlined “Some Dems’ 2028 strategy: a straight, White, Christian man,” included quotes from party operatives and strategists suggesting that parts of the American electorate are too biased to back a female or other diverse presidential candidate.
Emanuel disagrees.
“More important is the voters’ take. They’ll make a decision. And so to me, that’s the wrong thing. The question is, do you have the ideas that address the challenges that are facing America, regardless of who’s speaking it,” he said.
Emanuel spoke with Fox News and other news organizations after headlining “Politics and Eggs,” a speaking series at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics that’s a must stop for White House hopefuls visiting the which for a century has held the first presidential primary in the White House race. And hours earlier, on Sunday evening, he was the main attraction at the latest “Stand Up New Hampshire” town hall hosted by top Democratic activists.
Emanuel has been crisscrossing the country in recent months, as he considers a presidential bid, including stops in two other crucial early primary states, Nevada and South Carolina, where he heads later this week.
On whether he’d become a presidential candidate, Emanuel said “if I think I have what it takes to answer what I think is ailing this great country, then I will jump into the deep end without my water wings.”
Emanuel, who hails from the more moderate center-left wing of the party, emphasized that in order to win in 2028, Democrats need to “centralize and ground ourselves in middle class values, tough enforcement at the border, put more police on the beat, and get kids, guns and gangs off the street, and invest in education opportunities.”
“Get to the core of what they expect from us and don’t get caught up in some cultural cul-de-sac that leads nowhere,” he added.
As Democrats look for a fighter in 2028 to win back the White House, Emanuel is showing off his scrappy side.
In a scrum with reporters, he repeated his line that “nobody walked into the ring with Rahm Emanuel who didn’t walk out with a broken nose.”
And he told Fox News Digital, “These are tough times that require a tough leader that knows how to do tough things and get them done on behalf of the American people. That’s the measure.”
And Emanuel also repeatedly took aim at Trump and his administration for their handling of the president’s efforts to acquire Greenland and the month-long strikes against Iran.
“It’s a war of choice, and it’s a bad choice,” Emanuel said of Trump. “He could have gotten everything he wanted without going to war.”
And taking another shot, he said, “If they ever run a sequel to ‘Dumb and Dumber,’ I have recommendations for the lead roles, and there’s lots of competition in this administration.”