Welcome to 28PW
Watching the Race Before the Race Begins
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably found me through The Maryland Wire, where we’ve spent the last several years covering Maryland politics in depth.
But there has always been another subject that has fascinated me.
Not Election Day.
Not the conventions.
Not the debates.
I’m fascinated by what political professionals call the invisible primary.
Long before a single vote is cast, future presidents are already running.
A governor quietly spends a weekend in New Hampshire.
A senator appears at a county fair in Iowa.
A vice president slips into South Carolina for a fundraising dinner.
A major donor changes sides.
A respected campaign manager suddenly resigns.
A PAC is formed.
A campaign opens a tiny office in Nevada that most people never notice.
Individually, none of those events seems particularly important.
Together, they’re the first chapters of the story that eventually produces the next President of the United States.
That’s what 28PW is about.
The name stands for 2028 Primary Watch.
This publication isn’t Republican.
It isn’t Democratic.
If a Republican candidate is quietly building a winning organization, I want to know about it.
If a Democratic candidate is putting together a formidable campaign, I want to know about that too.
If someone nobody is taking seriously today suddenly starts putting together the pieces of a national campaign, that’s news.
Politics isn’t just speeches and television commercials.
It’s organization.
Strategy.
Fundraising.
Travel.
Staff.
Momentum.
Sometimes the most important political story of the week isn’t what someone said.
It’s where they went.
My goal is simple.
I want to build the publication that answers one question every political junkie eventually asks:
“Who’s really running?”
Over the coming months we’ll follow the candidates, the donors, the endorsements, the travel schedules, the early states, the campaign organizations, and the countless small developments that usually don’t receive much attention until they’re suddenly obvious to everyone.
If you enjoy understanding politics before it becomes conventional wisdom, I think you’ll enjoy what we’re building here.
The first caucus and the first primary are still a long way off.
That’s exactly why it’s time to begin.
Welcome to 28PW the 2028 Primary Watch.
Let’s watch the race before the race begins.