As presidential contenders gather in Denver this week for Democrats’ first big meeting since the midterms, the most sought-after people working the rooms won’t be the candidates. They’ll be the staffers.

The first real fight of the 2028 Democratic presidential primary will be over campaign operatives, as Democrats prepare for a widespread shortage of political talent in races up and down the ballot and in offices across Capitol Hill.

The demand is coming from every direction. There is a presidential field that could reach two dozen candidates, each likely with an ancillary super PAC that must firewall its staff off from the campaign., There’s a Senate map that puts Democrats on offense. And there are dozens of House members-elect who are already preparing for reelection.

All of that has handed hungry young Democratic operatives something they rarely have: leverage.

“There are not enough political consultants for half of the campaigns,” said a 20-something Democratic consultant, who, like others interviewed for this story, requested anonymity out of business sensitivities . “It is a buyer’s market for staffers who are good at this.”

A Democratic media consultant in the same age bracket concurred: “There is not enough Hill staff, there aren’t enough chiefs, there isn’t enough campaign staff,” the consultant said.

Anyone with a proven record is in demand. After last week’s midterm landslide, Democrats describe a frantic dash to hire staff amid Capitol Hill’s orientation week. Meanwhile, campaign consultants are already setting the terms of their pay packages for the next two years, with the condition they commit for the full cycle.

Some of the more-established presidential aspirants long ago assembled their nascent campaign teams of fundraisers, communications staffers and all-around consiglieris are already on their official staffs or their political action committees’ payrolls.

“Having the culture and the money for talent is huge,” said the young media consultant. “People like [Illinois Gov. J.B.] Pritzker and [Georgia U.S. Sen. Jon] Ossoff who hired massive 2026 campaign teams and proved to be good bosses who pay their worth, start on a really, really strong foot and have a big advantage.”

Seasoned consultants remain top draws for every presidential aspirant because they bring instant credibility to a field without a clear front-runner. The elder consultant draft may well be the most obvious test of candidate viability, a battle for advisers with fat rolodexes jammed with media contacts and party powerbrokers.

A generation ago, this pre-season phase was known as “the Shrum primary,” when top Democratic candidates competed to hire Robert Shrum, a strategist for the presidential campaigns of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, former Vice President Al Gore and former Sen. John Kerry.

However, many of today’s most prominent consultants have multiple clients who may run against each other. Like Shrum before them, they will have to pick a single client to avoid conflicts of interest. That is all but certain to leave some candidates out in the cold.

The most cutthroat fight of all is expected to be for on-the-ground manpower in the early primary states: South Carolina, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan and Virginia. Democrats say staffers who worked on statewide and downballot campaigns this year will get a look from candidates, particularly campaigns in Michigan and Nevada. But the most in-demand advisers, several Democratic campaign sources said, will be the team that worked on Sen.-elect Annie Andrews’ campaign in South Carolina, which will hold Democrats’  first-in-the-nation primary in 2028.

Still, some consultants will take a pass. Few presidential campaigns last long enough for the campaign to pay the polling, television and direct mail commissions that make for a consultants’ livelihood. Moreover, political vendors tend to be fiercely loyal to their current down-ballot clients, and some worry that the demands of a presidential campaign could overload their portfolios. The anticipated earlier-than-ever launch of presidential campaigns could also test the endurance and bandwidth of the consultant class.

“People are working at a high capacity for longer,” said Achim Bergman, a Democratic direct mail consultant. “Some of my colleagues might feel burnout.”

It’s a different sentiment among younger operatives who have yet to build their client lists or political loyalties and are eager to make their names in politics.

“Most industry vets know that a higher position on a Senate race or managing a House race is more of a work horse job, but everyone secretly dreams of working in the White House and wants to get there,” said the young media consultant. “I’ll also say that pretty much everyone I talk to wants to do a presidential.”

That allure could drain young talent from the down-ballot races.Democrats must defend dozens of House seats deep in Republican territory. After last week’s gains in the House and Senate, they are also increasingly eager to push further into GOP-held seats.

Even so, the growing pains are a high class dilemma for some Democratic hands.

“What a great problem to have. We just won a historic amount of races across the country, with a ton of unknown campaign talent who have risen up and won,” said Jim Messina, who managed President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. “This is a great opportunity for new faces to get their shot at bigger jobs and the party is so much stronger for it.”

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