Nancy Pelosi Says She Believes Close Ally Rahm Emanuel Will Run For President in 2028

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Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed her belief that Rahm Emanuel, a longtime Democratic operative and the former mayor of Chicago, will run for president in 2028.

In an interview with The Free Press published on Friday, Pelosi said, “I think he’s going to run.”

Pelosi made the comment for a piece that was headlined, “President Rahm Emanuel? He Thinks So.”

Emanuel sat down with the outlet’s Peter Savodnik at a Chicago pizzeria. During their conversation, the former US ambassador to Japan said, “I’m not done with public service. I’m hoping it’s not done with me.”

He was noncommittal when asked about running for president, telling Savodnik, “Before I make a decision, I want to know that I have an answer to what I think ails our country, ails our politics, and ails the party—and they may all be the same answer.”

Emanuel also made a joke about former President Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis in one moment, which Savodnik described:

We had just sat down in our booth at Pizzeria Portofino, an upscale restaurant on the riverfront he revitalized as mayor, when I asked Rahm Emanuel how he was doing.

“I don’t have prostate cancer,” he quipped.

There it was. Sharp, funny, a little nasty, a little glib—and aimed directly at the proverbial elephant in the room. Classic Rahm Emanuel.

In March, Politico reported Emanuel, who had just returned from Tokyo, was laying the groundwork for a 2028 run at the White House. The outlet’s Jonathan Martin theorized recent comments from the 65-year-old that felt like pieces of a stump speech.

Asked about the report in Friday’s piece, Emanuel said “nothing” was set in stone.

The Democratic Party is recalibrating following President Donald Trump’s 2024 election win. Inter-party division and the absence of a singular, unifying figure have left the party arguably leaderless.