WASHINGTON (TNND) — A steady stream of Democrats has rolled through early voting states as jockeying for the 2028 presidential primary has already started with hopefuls to gain some early traction with voters and influential local leaders as the party tries to figure out how to get back into power in Washington after being swept by Republicans in 2024.

The calendar for the Democratic presidential primary has not been set yet, but that has not stopped a line of possible contenders from rolling into states that have traditionally been early in the lineup to test their messaging to their party’s voters and local leaders.

South Carolina, which was vaulted into first place for Democrats during former President Joe Biden’s tenure, has seen a steady wave of high-profile figures with national ambitions visit the state to court its voters. Iowa and New Hampshire have also drawn some attention from presidential hopefuls, but much of the crowd has been in the Palmetto State.

Over the last week, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear met with Georgetown County Democrats, California Gov. Gavin Newsom drew big crowds for a two-day tour of rural counties and California Rep. Ro Khanna took a multi-day trip through the state to tout his message to Black voters.

Other big names have also come into South Carolina this year with Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly speaking at an event in June, and Govs. Wes Moore of Maryland and Tim Walz of Minnesota speaking at state Democratic Party events.

South Carolina has not voted for a Democrat in the general election since 1976, but its Democratic primary has still been important for politicians hoping to win the Oval Office. The state most recently has been credited with saving Biden’s struggling primary campaign in 2020 and propelling him to the nomination after poor showings in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Voters are used to seeing ambitious politicians roll through their states but jockeying for the next presidential cycle has seemingly continued to move earlier after each recent cycle.

“It doesn't change a lot of voters’ minds. They're not in the mindset of ‘who are we going to support in ’28?’ But it’s part of the ritual of running for president that you have to put in the legwork,” said David McLennan, a political science professor and director of the Meredith poll. “You have to go in and meet the players in South Carolina. It helps with fundraising and that sort of thing. We've got a long way to go, but presidential candidates need to start early.”

The tours through South Carolina and other early-voting states offer candidates two opportunities — gathering support among the state’s major political players and testing stump speeches on their vision for America’s future.

Beshear, who represents a state Trump has won handily three times, has pushed the party to focus on kitchen table issues and to stop getting caught up in culture wars.

“The Democratic Party definitely has a job to do to re-earn the faith of the American people. We can't be running after every outrage of the day," Beshear told Georgetown County Democrats. "The most important thing we can do is be laser-focused on people's jobs, their next doctor's appointment, the roads and bridges they drive, the school they drop their kids off at and whether they feel safe in their community."

Newsom, who has used his high-profile post as the leader of the country’s largest Democratic state to directly combat the Trump administration on policy and in courts, has maintained that approach meeting with voters.

“We’ve got to be more aggressive. We’ve got to get back on our toes, not our heels,” Newsom said during one of his stops. “The Democratic Party for too long has been on the receiving end.”

The early jockeying comes as the party is locked out of power in Washington until at least after the 2026 midterms and is struggling to chart its path forward. An avalanche of executive orders, shakeups of government agencies and legislation flying through the Republican-controlled Congress has left little opportunity for them to gain traction in resistance to Trump and mounting pressure from its voters to do more to counter him.

Presidential hopefuls are among the high-profile Democrats trying to set a leading example for it to operate under to regain congressional majorities next year and take back the White House in 2028.

“They're testing messages in South Carolina for the post-Trump presidency, so they're a little immune from that, but they've still got to attack the Trump agenda and put out a promising vision for what they want to do in 2028, so it's a very difficult rhetorical position they're in,” McLennan said.

Moore, a frequently cited potential presidential contender despite his insistence he will not be in the field, has used his stops to push his party to act urgently to counter what it sees as the damages of Trump’s presidency.

“Anybody who is talking about 2028 doesn’t understand the urgency of 2025,” Moore said in South Carolina in May.

Other potential frontrunners have opted to move more cautiously. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro have avoided a lot of early-voting state travel this year but would be high-profile and leading candidates if they chose to enter the race. Both have been speculated for years as future candidates and have been considered as vice president nominees in the last two elections.