March 19, 2025

By Ross Barkan 

Photo: Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times/Redux

For the first time in two decades, it is impossible to predict who the next Democratic nominee for president might be. Three straight election cycles produced three flawed nominees who were firmly backed by their predecessors. Hillary Clinton was Barack Obama’s preferred successor, and led in just about every single poll over her theoretical and literal competition. Joe Biden seized the nomination four years later, thanks in part to Obama’s 11th-hour intervention to force several competitive center-left candidates, including Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, out of the primary ahead of Super Tuesday. In 2024, following Biden’s implosion, Kamala Harris became the first Democratic nominee in more than a half-century to achieve that status without winning a vote in any of the primaries.

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