Dems eyeing White House lean into their childhood traumas

Some potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidates are introducing themselves to voters in a striking way: by documenting their childhood resentments, family chaos and fights with their parents. Why it matters: Many presidential hopefuls carry painful memories from complicated childhoods. But few have discussed them as openly as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.

Their frankness about their formative years and family dynamics is a way to shape their public stories before journalists do. It's also a sign of shifting taboos and a growing desire for candidates to appear relatable to voters.

Driving the news: In preparing for potential 2028 campaigns, the governors have opened up about how their difficult relationships with their parents still shape them: Josh Shapiro In his recent book, "Where We Keep the Light," Shapiro writes that he "had a happy childhood and, at points, an unhappy childhood home."

He says his mother, Judi, could be unstable, and that he and his siblings believed that "if we were good, we could stop the chaos and the yelling." Shapiro notes that he wrestled with whether to discuss such private family matters, but ultimately did because others have lived through similar experiences — and because his mother's behavior influenced his leadership style. "It explains why I always sought to solve problems," Shapiro writes. "I had to anticipate a problem or a pain point before there was a blowup."

When CBS' Gayle King pressed him on that passage last month, Shapiro said: "In many ways, and I hope she's able to see this one day, my mom is the hero in that book."

Shapiro's complicated family dynamic also was evident in his X post on Mother's Day last year, when he expressed gratitude to his mother-in-law, "who showed me unconditional love," and his mom, "who raised me to care about the world around me."

Gavin Newsom The California governor is even more candid about his at-times fraught relationships with both parents, which he says left him caught between two worlds and fully accepted by neither.

In his new book, "Young Man in a Hurry," Newsom recounts having dyslexia and how his mother, Tessa— who carried most of the burden of raising him and his sister — tried to console him over his struggles in school by saying: "It's okay to be average, Gavin." Newsom writes that although she meant to comfort him, he recalls no "crueler words." He also says that after his parents' divorce his father, Bill, was often absent, leaving him looking to give his father "reasons to be a bigger part" of his life. As part of his book tour, Newsom released an hourlong podcast with his sister, Hilary, in which they frankly discussed their parents' divorce, their different relationships with each, and the deaths of each.

Newsom also recalls being absent at times during his mother's final struggle with cancer, until she left him a voicemail in spring 2002 telling him that if he wanted to see her, he should do so before Thursday — "because that's going to be my last day on Earth."

She had arranged for an assisted suicide, and Newsom writes that he realized he had been "hiding from her, hiding from myself" because he didn't want to face her dying. When he and Hilary joined their mother on her final day, Newsom writes, she had a picture of the two siblings propped on her chest and said, "My works of art."

JB Pritzker He hasn't written a memoir, but the Illinois governor has spoken openly about losing his father, Donald, to a heart attack when he was 7 and his mother to alcoholism when he was 17.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Pritzker recalled his mother, Sue, trying to explain her alcoholism when he was 8 or 9, and promising to overcome it. "But unfortunately, she was never able to overcome it, and it overcame her and took her life," he said. As an heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, that left Pritzker both an orphan and extraordinarily wealthy.

Not every likely 2028 candidate is leaning into family trauma.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, for example, describes a far warmer childhood in his upcoming book, "Stand." He dedicates it to his mother, writing: "Thank you, Mom, for giving me a lifetime of transcendent love. I stand because you and Dad so love me."