🤫 Some top Democrats are quietly debating a fraught question: whether the party's best bet for winning back the presidency in 2028 is to nominate a man — perhaps a straight, white, Christian man.

• Their fear, divulged with dismay in group chats, at cocktail parties and increasingly in public, is that parts of the electorate are too biased to support a woman or other diverse candidate for president.
• Former first lady Michelle Obama fueled such talk recently, saying the U.S. is "not ready for a woman." Democratic strategists have put it bluntly, with several saying a version of "It has to be a white guy."

🏞️ The big picture: The Democratic Party takes pride in being a champion of women, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community and religious minorities. Electing Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, was the high point for the party's goal of boosting diversity in the executive branch.

• But falling short twice to President Trump — both times with women on the ticket — has left some Democratic leaders, donors and strategists deeply pessimistic about what voters will accept now.

🗣️ Most of these conversations have unfolded in private, but a striking number of Democrats have begun voicing their concerns more openly, exposing a larger debate within the party over electability.

• Michelle Obama pushed the discussion into public view in November, saying the U.S. has "got a lot of growing up to do, and there's still, sadly, a lot of men who do not feel like they can be led by a woman."
• South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn told NBC that the former first lady was "absolutely correct," adding that women should keep running anyway.
• On "The View" last year, former President Biden blamed sexism and racism for former Vice President Harris' loss to Donald Trump in 2024.

📖 In her book, "107 Days," Harris talked about the hurdles she faced — and how they affected her running-mate selection.

• She wrote that before tapping Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, her top choice was then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who's gay. He "would have been an ideal partner — if I were a straight, white man," Harris said.
• "But we were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man," she said. "Part of me wanted to say, 'Screw it, let's just do it.' But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk."
• But Harris told the New York Times in December that "I do believe the country is ready" for a female president.

State of play: Not many women are seen as weighing presidential campaigns in 2028, though Harris, Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are widely believed to be doing so. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is another possible candidate, though some insiders think she's unlikely to run.

• Many of the men seen as possible 2028 contenders aren't white Christians.
• Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel are Jewish. Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego is Latino. California Rep. Ro Khanna is a Hindu of Indian descent. And New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore are Black.
• Besides Buttigieg, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and California Gov. Gavin Newsom are white Christians, though Newsom has called himself an "Irish-Catholic rebel."

✅ Reality check: Skeptics of the chatter say blaming some Americans' intolerance for Hillary Clinton's loss in 2016 and Harris' in 2024 could be a too-convenient way for the party to avoid dealing with its own divisions and shortcomings.

Several potential 2028 contenders have pushed back on the notion that the country isn't tolerant enough.

• "They have no idea what they are talking about," Khanna told us of Democrats who think women and other diverse candidates can't win. "The data says otherwise."
• Harris "got the same white votes as Barack Obama," Khanna said. "What she lost in white men, she made up in white women. But we didn't win as many Latino Americans, Asian Americans, Black men or young voters."

"I love Michelle Obama," Whitmer told NPR, but "I think America is ready for a woman president."

• Buttigieg told Politico that "the way that you earn trust with voters is based mostly on what they think you're going to do for their lives, not on categories."

Shapiro, on the "Higher Learning" podcast, said that "America's ready to elect a woman, a Black person, a gay person, a Jewish person or whatever."

• "What America wants is someone who's going to get sh*t done for them."

Read more.

— Holly Otterbein, Alex Thompson

💵 Left-wing activists are calling on prospective 2028 presidential contenders to embrace a wealth tax — a move that many mainstream Democrats say is ill-advised.

Why it matters: On one side, potential White House hopefuls such as Ocasio-Cortez, Khanna and Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen have endorsed wealth taxes.

• On the other, moderates argue that such taxes are anti-business, legally unfeasible and too often pitched as addressing wealth inequality rather than using the revenue to expand benefits.

🎯 Newsom is in the crosshairs of this fight. He's opposed to a wealth tax in California but has left the door open to a national wealth tax.

• Left-wing activists have been pressuring him to embrace a proposal for a one-time 5% tax on Californians worth more than $1 billion.
• Newsom has vowed to stop the proposal because he fears it would drive away the wealthy and hurt the state's economy.
• Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a possible 2028 rival, traveled to Los Angeles yesterday to show support for a wealth tax in Newsom's state.

Tax the Greedy Billionaires, a campaign backed by MoveOn and other liberal activists, told Axios it circulated polling at a meeting last week with several congressional offices indicating that most Democratic voters would view Newsom less favorably if they thought he opposed higher taxes on the rich.

• The group also is making a small digital ad buy attacking Newsom and planning talks with other 2028 contenders to push wealth taxes and similar policies.
• Newsom has long disputed the idea that he doesn't support making the wealthy pay more, pointing to California's progressive tax system.

Igor Volsky, campaign director of Tax the Greedy Billionaires, said that potential 2028 candidates should understand that "extreme wealth is a crisis."

• Tré Easton of the center-left think tank Searchlight Institute said a national wealth tax "would have some problems passing constitutional muster."

Read more.

— Holly Otterbein

A look at what potential 2028 Democratic presidential contenders are up to:

• Harris is headed to the South in April for several fundraisers for state Democratic parties, the latest sign that she's keeping the door open to another run for the White House.
• Ocasio-Cortez backed a moratorium on AI data centers until safeguards are established, bolstering her tough-on-tech bonafides.
• Booker kicked off his book tour, visiting Philadelphia, Atlanta, St. Louis and Newark, N.J., and appearing on "The View," "Good Morning America" and Scott Galloway's "The Prof G Pod." At his Philly stop, Booker teased a new anti-corruption bill and joked about his "addiction" to McDonald's French fries.
• Newsom said he hopes the bombshell ruling against Meta and YouTube in a social media addiction trial is a "moment of reckoning." On Jonathan Martin's "On the Road" show, Newsom said he regretted using the word "apartheid" on another podcast in reference to Israel.
• Pritzker held what appears to have been a successful make-up call with senior members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who'd been angry with him for wading into his state's Senate primary.
• Buttigieg is an early Democratic primary frontrunner in New Hampshire, according to the latest Saint Anselm College poll.
• Shapiro met with social media personality Carlos Eduardo Espina and starred in a super PAC ad backing a congressional candidate in a key swing seat in Pennsylvania. His book tour continues in his state's Erie County on Tuesday.
• Emanuel headlines a fundraiser tomorrow in New Hampshire for U.S. House candidate Stefany Shaheen, the daughter of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
• Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock and a bipartisan group of other lawmakers reached a deal on a plan to cap insulin costs at $35.
• Whitmer encouraged women to run for office at a virtual rally with the liberal project Contest Every Race.
• Gallego traveled to San Antonio for a VoteVets town hall, where the tough-talking former Marine said that "working-class kids are going to war for the bone-spurs elite of this country." At a D.C. event, he called former Attorney General Merrick Garland a "coward" and said that "if I could ever take down his photo from the U.S. Attorney's Office, I will gladly do it."

🍴 Newsom's father, Bill, was known for reciting Shakespeare, and Newsom named his restaurant group after the Sir John Falstaff character from the "Henry IV" plays.

• So in the latest episode of "The Axios Show," we asked Newsom about his dad's favorite play by the Bard, and if it's different from his own.

"We all fell in love with 'Henry IV,' " Newsom said — particularly with Falstaff, the roguish mentor and companion to young Prince Hal.

• 👑 Newsom cited the scene in which Prince Hal is becoming King Henry V, and "here's the lumbering rogue Falstaff himself, running up to the palace and essentially saying 'We've made it. We are now running the kingdom.'"
• "And the new king … goes to poor Falstaff and says 'I know thee not, old man.' The weight and responsibility of now being king."

💔 Newsom said it was the mask that Hal now had to wear as king, but "it breaks my heart a little bit for poor Jack Falstaff."

• After the interview, we recommended the governor check out Orson Welles' "Chimes at Midnight," which re-tells Henry IV with Falstaff as the main character.

— Alex Thompson