Democrats are split on whether President Donald Trump serving a third term is a real possibility and, at least for now, they broadly reject that campaigning against that threat is an effective party message.
Given their losses in 2024, the party has been working to figure out how to break through to voters and how to best oppose Trump. They’re divided on if the answer is to take a bold organizing approach, or “roll over and play dead.” They’re unsure if it’s best to sit quietly through a joint address to Congress or protest to the point of getting kicked out and censured. And they’re struggling to find a way to post through the second Trump administration on social media that works.
What is worth their attention right now, and how does the possibility of Trump as a third term president fit into that?
“I think we’ve got much more pressing and immediate crises that we can address that will move people,” Rep. Jamie Raskin told NOTUS when asked if he thought Democrats could successfully campaign on the threat of Trump serving a third term. “I haven’t heard a lot of conversation about that. I mean, maybe, as we get closer, if he keeps dropping hints about that and joking about it, then maybe it could become an issue.”
Raskin represents the center of gravity of his party at the moment, which is largely urging a wait-and-see approach on this particular matter. But not everyone agrees.
Last week, Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman, a member of the House’s Judiciary Committee, re-introduced a bill to reaffirm the 22nd Amendment, which limits presidents to getting elected to the office for two terms. Goldman wants to make it clear that it applies to Trump, and he thinks Democrats across the country can use Trump’s third-term rhetoric to their advantage during this election cycle.
“I think if he keeps pushing it and talking about it,” Goldman told NOTUS in an interview. “It confirms his clear desire to be a dictator and a king, which he’s showing in many different ways. So I think it would add some clear confirmation to what I believe he’s already marching towards, which is to rule the country by dictatorship and take over the government.”
Trump has repeatedly made comments that indicate he’s open to the idea of a third term, but the discourse is no longer just a joke he’s making. It’s circulating among Republicans in Congress, after Rep. Andy Ogles introduced a resolution to amend the Constitution in a way that would allow Trump a third term. A group called the Third Term Project brought attention to a plan for Trump to run as vice president in 2028 during the Conservative Political Action Conference in February.
And after the joint address last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted his praise followed by two words: “Trump 2028!”
The Democratic National Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee did not comment on plans to incorporate the threat of a third term presidency into their messaging.
When asked if Democrats can campaign successfully on the threat of a third Trump term, Rep. Al Green — the Democrat who was censured last week after protesting Trump’s joint address — said that if lawmakers believe a third term is a threat, they should incorporate it into their campaigning.
“There are times when you do what you know and believe to be right,” Green said. “If you win, you’ve won a victory for righteousness, but if you lose and he does snag a third term, you lose your country. So I don’t know how you could not campaign on that if you perceive it to be the case.”
Rep. Robin Kelly didn’t rule out the idea of it eventually factoring into the party’s messaging — though she believes that Trump has already given them plenty else to talk about.
“We don’t have to just campaign on that,” Kelly told NOTUS. “We just talk about all the things he’s doing, all the lives they’re destroying, the thousands and thousands of people that have lost their jobs and people that have lost their health care now. So that’s one thing, but he’s given us a lot to campaign on.”
The prevailing sentiment by Democrats on and off the Hill is that any messaging around the threat wouldn’t resonate with voters — they instead want to focus on threats like cuts to Medicaid and Social Security.
“Every message is a choice,” one Democratic strategist told NOTUS. “Part of why Trump is successful is he throws so many choices into the arena that if his political opponents want to effectively build opposition to him and his agenda, they need to choose to highlight the pieces of an agenda that will have the most immediate and most devastating impact on our country.”
Still, that Trump has repeatedly made comments suggesting he’s interested in a third term is starting to register with a wider level of concern within the Democratic Party.
In a podcast interview with The New York Times, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said that she is “worried” about the threat of Trump serving a third term and is concerned about how Republicans could look to “undermine future elections.”
“When I speak to Democratic voters, there is an enormous amount of anger towards the Democratic Party that allowed this to happen,” Healey told The New York Times. “They look at this and they say it was the failure of the Democratic Party that opened the door to Donald Trump coming in. And I just wonder, as a sitting governor and a Democrat, how (do) you respond to that?”
But in Congress, there’s still widespread resistance to the idea that this could actually be serious, and many Democrats are resisting taking what they see as bait. They believe that the thought of a third term is too outlandish to bother developing a detailed strategy to address it.
“No, I think we just say the Constitution … and Donald Trump doesn’t get a special exception,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren told NOTUS when asked if the party needs to develop messaging. “If he wants to try to amend the Constitution, he should rally his troops and see if they can do that.”
Democrats say they’re waiting to see how this all plays out.
“I think we’re not there yet,” Sen. Peter Welch told NOTUS. “It’s a potential threat. He jokes about it. So maybe he’ll try. We got to deal with the economy.”
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Torrence Banks is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.