The Washington Sun is launching a new editorial project about the 2028 presidential election that captures sentiment around which candidates are surging and which are floundering. Welcome to The Presidential Vibes Index.
Every month, a group of national reporters, pundits of all stripes, political scientists and other experts from around the country will rank a list of potential Democratic candidates and another of potential Republican candidates. That information will be combined with other attention markers like polling and prediction markets.
The result is a reported ranking that attempts to answer the question: Who is winning the primaries today?
The Sun’s Evan McMorris-Santoro is the lead writer of the project, working alongside The Sun’s data expert, Andrew Van Dam.
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“There are always two conversations early in a presidential cycle: What do the polls say about a candidate and what is the vibe around that candidate?” McMorris-Santoro said. “With our panel of plugged-in experts, we’re bringing these two things together. We’ll tell you who is winning and who is losing and help readers understand the hard-to-define aura around a campaign.”
The panel will consist of roughly 60 participants. Contributors include: Kirk Bado, Leigh Ann Caldwell, Zoe Chace, Ruby Cramer, Daniella Diaz, David Drucker, Lee Drutman, Jesse Ferguson, Kadia Goba, Matt K. Lewis, Dana Milbank, Aaron Parnas, CJ Pearson, Alex Roarty, Elena Schneider, Alex Seitz-Wald, Marianna Sotomayor, Kara Swisher, Ben Terris, Jasmine Wright, Salena Zito and more to be announced in the coming weeks.
The Vibes Index will publish monthly, starting shortly after the midterms in November and continuing until the 2028 election.
About the Methodology
This is not a scientific poll — by design.
Participants’ first pick will get 10 points; their 10th pick will get 1 point. The secret sauce is the expertise of The Sun’s panelists, not statistics.
The Sun will publish the rankings for candidates of each party alongside polls, betting markets and other attention markers (such as Wikipedia traffic). Those figures will be measured against our experts’ vibes.
About The Washington Sun
We launched in 2024 as NOTUS, a news site focused on national politics and policy. But as we watched others pull back on Washington coverage, we knew our hometown deserved better. So we invested, more than doubling the size of our newsroom in just six months.
Our work puts Washington front and center, and we wanted our name to do the same. So NOTUS — short for News of the United States — is now The Washington Sun.
We cover politics and policy and the people who shape life in Washington — not just at the White House and in Congress, but at the Wilson Building, at Northwest Stadium and in the neighborhoods where we live.
We report for the people who live here, the people who make policy here and the people around the world who care deeply about what happens here. We do it with original reporting, with deep sourcing and with an unwavering commitment to accuracy.
Contact The Washington Sun
To participate in the experts panel, reach out to Evan McMorris-Santoro: ems@washsun.com.
For press inquiries, reach out to Justin Peligri: JustinPeligri@washsun.com.
For sponsorship opportunities, reach out to partnerships@washsun.com.
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