Democrats eyeing 2028 presidential runs are losing weight, upgrading their wardrobes and changing their hairstyles — a time-honored tradition for White House hopefuls with new urgency in the TikTok era.

Why it matters: The makeovers by former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin and others are the latest signs that the pre-primary has begun.

• Presidential candidates have carefully curated their physical appearances since the early days of TV — and social media means they need to be more camera-ready than ever.
• Chris Christie got lap band surgery before his 2016 presidential campaign. Jeb Bush lost so much weight on the Paleo diet in that cycle that he had to buy a new wardrobe — and it sparked concerns about his health. Hillary Clinton spent tens of thousands of dollars to enhance her clothing in 2016.

🪞 "Appearance matters," said James Carville, chief strategist for Bill Clinton's successful 1992 campaign. "No one's going to say, 'I'm not going to vote for someone because they're not attractive.' ... but it certainly matters."

• The challenge for candidates is to look their best, but also down-to-earth. "You're not running for the cover of GQ, you're running for a political office," said Derek Guy, the editor of "Put This On" and a popular writer on men's fashion.

Zoom in: Potential 2028 aspirants are changing their appearance in three main areas: fitness, styling and facial hair.

1. Getting in shape

• Even President Trump, a frequent critic, has noticed: Pritzker has lost weight this year. The Illinois governor opened up about his fitness journey with an NBC station in Chicago. "I have kids I want to be around for," he explained, saying he now walks about five miles each morning.
• Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who began a national tour this year after his 2024 loss with Vice President Harris, has slimmed down. He stepped up his running routine, an aide told us, and trained for a 10-mile race with his daughter this summer.
• Slotkin, who has created some buzz lately with high-profile speeches and trips to Missouri and Kansas, also has lost weight in recent months.

2. Improving their style

• Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, another potential 2028 candidate, actually began his makeover around 2022, when he was first elected governor.
• Before then, many of his outfits were dated, Guy said. "It looks like clothes that you bought in the '90s and just held on to them," he told us while looking at Shapiro's official portrait from several years ago.
• Now, Shapiro's suits are more tailored and modern, but not flashy. He sometimes ditches a tie, has swapped out his old glasses for a trendier, rectangular pair, and often wears sneakers.

👔 Guy approved of one potential 2028 candidate's fashion: California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a frontrunner in early Democratic polls. "I think he dresses pretty well," said Guy, who particularly liked Newsom's ties — but wondered whether his look might be too stylish for some voters.

3. Growing facial hair

• Buttigieg, who traveled to Iowa this year, now sports a beard — cultivating a scruffier image as Democrats were scrambling to figure out how to win back more men voters. Buttigieg has said he grew the beard because it was one of the first times he wasn't in a job in which he had to be clean-cut.
• Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, who was in New Hampshire recently, started wearing what he jokingly calls his "democracy beard" this year.

Zoom out: At a time when candidates have to navigate a hyper-fragmented media environment — going from shooting a direct-to-camera video for social media one minute to sitting for an hour-long podcast interview the next — strategists say there's more pressure than ever to perfect a candidate's look.

• The rise of Ozempic and GLP-1 drugs has made weight loss more attainable.
• 💪 And there are practical reasons to get fit: Veterans of presidential campaigns have said working out helps candidates build strength for a physically demanding grind.

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— Holly Otterbein and Alex Thompson

The future of AI is dividing the Democratic Party, as potential 2028 presidential candidates and key stakeholders stake out clashing positions in what's already shaping up as a major policy battle in the primary.

Why it matters: If Democrats win back the White House in 2028, where they land on AI will shape how the country approaches the new technology — with big consequences for the economy and workers.

🖼️ The big picture: Two main arguments are playing out within the party:

1. Democrats should embrace AI to beat China and capture the jobs that come with the many data centers AI companies are building. (The Trump administration has a similar approach, though some Democrats think it's too hands-off toward AI.)
2. Democrats should slow down and push for more regulation of the AI industry, given its potential power to displace millions of workers and the volume of natural resources being sucked up by new data centers to power the technology.

🏎️ Driving the news: Swing state governors such as Pennsylvania's Shapiro and Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer — both potential 2028 presidential contenders — have welcomed AI companies investing in their states.

• Some labor unions, especially those in the building trades, also have partnered with the AI industry and applauded the potential jobs it could bring to their members.

The other side: Some progressive Democrats eyeing the 2028 race, such as New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and California Rep. Ro Khanna, have been much more critical of AI companies.

• They've called for significant government regulations and new policies to protect workers who may be displaced by the technology.

While some unions are warming up to AI, others are fighting it because they believe it will replace their members' jobs.

• The Teamsters have called for all self-driving trucks to have a human operator in the vehicle — setting up a clash with AI companies.
• Some Democrats, including Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, have backed the union's demands, while others have been quiet on the issue.
• Asked whether Shapiro agrees with Fetterman, the governor's spokesperson declined to say.

Read more.

— Alex Thompson

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

• Ocasio-Cortez spotlighted a hypothetical 2028 poll that showed her narrowly defeating Vice President Vance. "Let the record show: I would stomp him," she said with a laugh, which prompted former Obama adviser David Axelrod to give his seal of approval: "@AOC has something you can't teach."
• 🥊 Shapiro also shadowboxed Vance, saying the vice president visited a swing district in Pennsylvania where a truck manufacturing company "had to lay off 300 people" because of President Trump's tariffs.
• Newsom hired former senior officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who were fired or resigned this year, doubling down his brand as a vocal critic of Trump.
• Pritzker got the Washington Post profile treatment, with the newspaper reporting that the billionaire has spent more than $500 million of his own funds on his election efforts, other Democrats' campaigns, and liberal causes since 2015.
• Walz signed gun-related executive orders after Minnesota lawmakers didn't pass new gun-control legislation in light of a deadly mass shooting at a Catholic church and the assassinations in June of House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. Federal prosecutors also announced new charges in Minnesota's sprawling Medicaid fraud scheme.
• Maryland Gov. Wes Moore's veto of a bill to create a commission to study reparations for slavery was overridden by state lawmakers. Meanwhile, a redistricting panel that Moore created recommended Maryland redraw its congressional maps for 2026, but the plan faces a steep hurdle in the state Senate.
• 💰 Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego floated a "war tax" on social media amid rising U.S. tensions with Venezuela. Gallego said his proposal would raise taxes on the wealthy whenever the country goes to war: "See how quickly wars end, or aren't ever started."
• Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel swept through Nevada — a traditionally important presidential primary state — to campaign for candidates and the state Democratic Party's "Local Brew and National Views Lecture Series." He also appeared on "Pod Save America."
• Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock will join "All the Smoke" podcast host Matt Barnes in D.C. on Jan. 14 for a discussion as part of the "YouTube in Session" series with influencers, per an invite shared with Axios.

Warnock, another potential 2028 presidential candidate, is also senior pastor at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church.

• In the spirit of the holidays, we asked him what his favorite Christmas present was as a kid.

🏈 Electric football, he told us, referring to the charming, rather unrealistic game popular with kids in the 1960s and '70s. There weren't a ton of options before Madden!

• "You had these little plastic men," Warnock said. "You plug it in, and the thing shakes, and that's how the men would move from one end of the field to the other." His set featured the Dallas Cowboys — his favorite team — vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• "I've tried to explain it to my kids, and people are looking at me like, 'What are you talking about?' " he said, adding that he was 9 when he got the game.
• "You have to use your imagination ... that's a play, that's a block."