“NatSec Democrats” Go to Governors Offices in Preparation for 2028 POTUS Runs
Posted on November 17, 2025 by Conor Gallagher
Over the past eight years the Democrats have increasingly turned to the strategy of running dozens of former intelligence, special forces unit members, and former Hillary Clinton State Department operatives.
The “national security” strategy allowed the party to get cozier with the military-industrial complex, as well as Democrats using their “national security” credentials to pose as defenders of the country against the enemy within (in this case Trump and his MAGA supporters).
Anne Applebaum is big fan of such a strategy and has penned fawning pieces of such Democrats, but the thinking politically is best summed up by WaPo neocon columnist and torture enthusiast Jennifer Rubin, who wrote in support of two of the Democrats’ most promoted spook-turned-politicians: Abigail Spanberger and Elissa Slotkin.
“At a time when deep tribalism pervades politics and the Republican Party has descended into reactionary nationalism, these are the sort of politicians … who can appeal to Democrats, independents and the kind of normal Republicans [who the] defeated and indicted former president Donald Trump alienated.”
Despite Rubin’s claims, most of such candidates the Democrats have put forward have lost. Who would believe that in a country exhausted by forever wars and desperate for housing and health care that spooks and counterrorism “experts” don’t have wide appeal?
Nevertheless, the party, running like a well-oiled machine for the donor class, continues with such a strategy as it works to elevate the “national security” Democrats. And a few have broken through. On November 4, Spanberger was elected governor of Virginia and Mikie Sherrill governor of New Jersey. Here’s a deeper dive into their results showing how they outperformed Kamala Harris 2024 in their respective states—lthough there’s little daylight between them on policy. It could have simply been voters are frustrated by the economy, masked ICE agents roaming the streets, and especially in Virginia, federal government cuts.
Let’s first take a brief look at those from military and spook backgrounds who did manage to make it into office.
“NatSec Democrats” Go to Governors Offices in Preparation for 2028 POTUS Runs | naked capitalism |
