Introduction
Now is the time to start planning for the U.S. presidential election year of 2028 if you haven’t already begun. 2028 will be an election year (barring the unlikely but real possibility of a coup) with contests from the local to the national level.
The current conjuncture
If you are pessimistic about the current political and social trajectory, you are far from alone.
According to recent Pew polling data[1], a majority of Americans say that the nation’s best years are behind us. This is especially true for young people, according to recent Gallup polling data[2]. Pessimism prevails.
One consequence of this political pessimism has been the rise of the far right, embodied most prominently within the USA by Trump and his MAGA followers, though this far right trend has not been limited to the US.
While we should not minimize the growing strength of the right, we should not lose sight of the emergence of popular resistance. This has been embodied most prominently in the recent mass response to anti-immigrant ICE raids in Minneapolis and elsewhere throughout the US. Trump’s approval rating has fallen to 36%, the lowest of his second term[3]. Much of this appears to be driven by opposition to the US/Israel war on Iran[4], and particularly through its economic consequences along with opposition to his immigration policies and other factors.
Perhaps you are encouraged by the turnout at No Kings but looking for a way forward that does not lead into the arms of the Democratic Party establishment, especially following the dismal performance of Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
In this essay, I consider some of the more salient factors that have influenced this divide, then I address some ways that the Green Party may contribute to a reversal.
Towards 2028
What can we take from past Green Party practice?
In an earlier article in New Green Horizons[5] I described how the Green Party’s Four Pillars (Peace, Social Justice, Ecology, Democracy) may be understood as a set of values transitional from capitalism to ecosocialism. Here I would like to consider how this approach may be useful in looking at the 2028 elections.
Peace
At the risk of extreme simplification, for the last 50 years or so, the world system has been dominated by several factors, including the oil shocks of the 1970s, strengthening the tendency to neoliberal globalization, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the eastern bloc (1989-1991),and the economic crisis of 2008.
The results include intensified interimperialist rivalries between the US, Russia, and China for global or regional hegemony. Wars in West Asia, including the US/Israeli war on Iran and the Israeli genocide in Gaza are among the most recent examples.
These wars are inherent to capitalism as a global system. Popular resistance can play an important role in raising the costs of war, but will not bring an end to imperial militarism without addressing its underlying cause. These wars in West Asia trace their roots back through a century to the military defeat and dismemberment of the Ottoman empire and the subsequent imperial redivision of West Asia through the Sykes-Picot treaty. This treaty divided West Asia between the victorious European powers (United Kingdom and France).
The seemingly endless wars, in large part over control of oil as a critical commodity, will almost certainly continue as long as imperialism continues to demand the right to control of this essential commodity. Lasting peace and the transcendence of international capital are integrally connected.
Imperial militarization and war are not limited to West Asia, of course, as recent events in Venezuela and Cuba bear witness. Nor are they limited exclusively to US imperial interests, as the Russian invasion and partial occupation of Ukraine demonstrate.
Ecology
Green Parties, both in the US and internationally, emerged from the environmental movements, first in Europe, and later within the U.S.
From the outset, Green parties internationally shared a political perspective that went beyond simple environmentalism. This was emphasized by the adoption of the Four Pillars (first in Europe) and the Ten Key Values (by the US Greens) to clarify the multi-dimensional basis of Green politics.
The Ecosocialist Green New Deal is foundational for a Green political perspective, bringing together environmentalism with a broader programmatic perspective.
An extended summary of the Ecosocialist Green New Deal may be found in the Green Party US platform[6]. It offers numerous opportunities for adoption into local and statewide electoral campaigns, including socialization of the energy production and distribution sectors.
Social Justice
According to a recent Gallup poll[7], worries about healthcare access and affordability top the list of concerns among Americans. This is followed by issues including the economy and inflation. Wealth inequality and systemic corruption are also major concerns[8].
As Greens, we need to address these issues from a worker-centered and intersectional perspective.
Democracy
Democracy for ecosocialists has two principal aspects. When we talk about democracy without qualification, we are generally referring to political democracy. This includes issues like ballot access, public funding of elections, ranked choice voting, and proportional representation, for example.
The second kind of democracy is economic democracy. This includes issues like trade union rights to organize and represent their workers, up to and including democratic workers self-management of their enterprise.
Living in a society dominated ideologically, politically, socially, and economically by capitalism, it is surely no accident that issues of economic democracy are relegated to near invisibility.
As defined on the GPUS website, the Four Pillars do not raise the twofold (economic and political) nature of our democratic tasks. The very brief explanation focuses exclusively on political democracy, though not explicitly identified as such. This is something that should be addressed in the future.
While the political culture of Britain and the US are distinctly different, there is much that we can learn from the recent success of the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW).
It is worth noting that the GPEW recently shifted its focus, moving from principally environmental issues to a broader perspective, including traditionally socialist ideas, like a wealth tax, Palestine solidarity, and defense of immigrants’ rights.
Part of the GPEW success compared with the US Greens may be structural. While most UK elections are determined by plurality voting as they are in the US, In the UK, there is nothing like our presidential election. Rather, the prime minister is chosen by vote of parliament. This may have the effect of diminishing the ideological chokehold of the spoiler effect for local elections.
One promising opportunity to popularize our ideas among working families, both union-organized and not, may come with the May Day 2028 strike, now being organized by the United Auto Workers (UAW)[9].
One of our important tasks lies in popularizing ideas of economic democracy, including democratic and social control over the development and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI).
Artificial Intelligence is arguably among the most transformative technologies of the last several centuries, along with the printing press, the steam engine, scientific medicine, computer technology, and telecommunications, among others. AI’s influence is reflected within all Green Party Pillars and values, including Peace, the environment, and social justice. Here I want to emphasize the democratic challenge imposed by AI, in part because the issue of democratizing the control and development of AI subsumes the other categories.
It is precisely a result of the historically transformative potential of AI for both good and evil that it cannot be left under the personal control of the tech billionaires, nor by the capitalist class as a whole. Their interests are defined by an insatiable appetite for personal wealth and not for the maximization of public welfare. We must advance the goal of socializing AI as a public trust under democratic control at all levels from local to international.
How do we win in 2028?
How do we win? We win when we successfully realize our goals. Clearly, we need to identify our goals before we can develop a strategy to realize them. Our goals should be “SMART”, that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound[10].
Here I would like to suggest three goals that may be a starting point for discussion within Green Party locals, leaving aside for now the strategies and tactics needed to realize these goals.
Some may find little new here. If this is old news to you, help by spreading the word to those who may be looking for a path forward.
- Develop and support at least one candidate for local office in your area. This may include, for example, either partisan or non-partisan office, such as city council, board of education, or state assembly representative.
- Work towards democratic electoral reforms, typically through referenda at the local level. For single-seat offices (like mayor for example), work to implement Ranked Choice Voting (RCV. For multi-seat offices like city council, work to implement proportional representation. There may be existing single-purpose electoral reform groups with whom we can collaborate.
- We need to create Green Party organizational spaces to bring in people from episodic electoral campaigns or from mass protests. We need to provide a welcoming path to get new people to become Green Party volunteers, activists and organizers. Encourage them to register Green, where this is an option. It has been our recent experience in California, for example, that new, young, and enthusiastic volunteers started out in Butch Ware’s 2026 gubernatorial campaign. They came to understand the need to build not just a single candidate, or single campaign, but rather build a party that can sustain our common efforts over time.
These specific goals are only examples, of course. There may be a better set of goals to match specific conditions. The important point, however, is to have some explicit goals. This allows us both to structure our work and to evaluate our progress.
If we can realize these goals in communities around the nation, we can truthfully say that we won in 2028.
Turning briefly to the national level, we note that in mid-June 2026, the prediction market[11] suggests that Gavin Newsom is the most likely Democratic Party opponent to Republicans JD Vance or Marco Rubio. What is more interesting is that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) comes in as the second ranking Democrat, though behind Newsom by 10 points. If AOC wins the Democratic Party nomination, an unlikely but nevertheless real possibility, this would create a Mamdani-like situation, with a democratic socialist running against a reactionary Republican opponent. This is something that needs to be taken seriously by Greens, and an effective political strategy will need to be discussed and developed.
- https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/05/15/a-majority-of-americans-say-the-countrys-best-years-are-behind-us/ ↑
- https://fortune.com/2026/05/11/young-americans-job-market-pessimism-gallup-poll-divide/ ↑
- https://news.gallup.com/poll/699221/trump-approval-rating-drops-new-second-term-low.aspx ↑
- https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5911100-iran-war-americans-poll/ ↑
- https://newgreenhorizons.us/towards-a-green-party-for-ecosocialism/ ↑
- https://www.gp.org/ecological_sustainability ↑
- https://news.gallup.com/poll/707732/healthcare-reclaims-top-spot-among-domestic-worries.aspx ↑
- https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/05/23/top-problems-facing-the-u-s/ ↑
- https://may1.uaw.org/ ↑
- https://www.ucop.edu/local-human-resources/_files/performance-appraisal/How+to+write+SMART+Goals+v2.pdf ↑
- https://polymarket.com/event/presidential-election-winner-2028 ↑
