They’ve Lost CNN: Chief Data Guru Says 2028 Democrat Bench Is A ‘Total Clown Car’

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten is not impressed with the Democratic bench going into the 2028 presidential election cycle — and he’s not holding back his overall assessment of the likely candidates: “a total clown car.”

Enten joined CNN anchor John Berman on Tuesday to discuss the likely candidates just as a new memoir from Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) — considered a heavy favorite to jump in the race — hit shelves, and his take was that Newsom was “flailing.”

WATCH:

CNN’s Harry Enten just ROASTED Gavin Newsom’s 2028 ambitions “He’s definitely flailing”:

“This is just a downright clown car at this point on the Democratic side.”

“This is just a total clown car. It is a total mess. There is no clear front-runner at this particular point on… pic.twitter.com/TYijTMGKWt

— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) February 24, 2026

Enten’s concern, as he broke down the numbers for Berman, was that there was no clear leader in the Democratic Party — and no one seemed poise for the kind of surge that would be necessary to push them to the front of the pack going into the 2028 primaries.

“Yeah, they’re all running and this is just a downright clown car at this point on the Democratic side,” Enten said, noting that the early polls showed Newsom (at 19%) just barely in the lead over former Vice President Kamala Harris (at 18%) and that his advantage was slim enough to be within the margin of error.

“Quite a weak number for [Harris], given that, of course, she was the nominee last time around,” Enten noted.

He went on to say that other likely contenders — such as former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who polled at 13% and 12%, respectively — were not doing any better.

“This is just a total clown car. It is a total mess. There is no clear frontrunner at this particular point on the Democratic side. Who the heck knows who the nominee is going to be in two years?” Enten added. “It was been a long time, this is very unusual for the Democratic side to not have a clear frontrunner at this point. You have to go all the way back, all the way back from when I wasn’t even in elementary school yet, not even in pre-K yet, to 1992, that was the last cycle in which there was no clear frontrunner at this point. Very unusual.”

The analyst then singled out Newsom, saying that in particular, he appeared to be losing ground — and popularity — even as he moves to market his memoir.

“It seems to me that Gavin Newsom is flailing a little bit, at least compared to where he was prior,” he said, explaining that betting markets were cooling off as far as Newsom was concerned. “Three months ago, according to the prediction market, look at that, it was a 37% chance, now it’s just at 28%. Down he goes. He’s definitely flailing a little bit.”