Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and her team are positioning her to run for president or the U.S. Senate in 2028, according to people familiar with her operation.
Why it matters: Ocasio-Cortez’s 2028 decision could shake up the presidential race or the Senate’s leadership. A fellow New Yorker, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, 74, is up for re-election in 2028.
A Senate race between Schumer and Ocasio-Cortez, 35, would be a generational clash pitting the Democratic Party’s leading traditionalist against its star insurgent progressive.
State of play: This year, Ocasio-Cortez — widely known as AOC — has campaigned across the country and in parts of New York State far from her Bronx and Queens district, all while investing millions to grow her already formidable online presence.
She has also brought in some former senior advisers to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to bolster her operation.
Ocasio-Cortez hasn’t made any decision about her future. But her team is working to give her choices.#
Realistically, unless something dramatically changes, there’s no way the DNC would allow her to get the nomination for either position during the primary process.
Here’s to hoping the Democrats see the sign of the times before it’s too late.
The way legal corruption works in the US though - maybe they get paid for losing the election? Interesting thought.
Their role has never been to win elections but to prevent leftist movements and orgs from gaining positions of power that would threaten the status quo.
Exhibit A: institutional refusal to endorse Mamdani.
Adams and Trump literally teaming up to try beating him in the general. They don’t even try to hide it when an actual threat emerges.
It’s actually really funny, I think a lot of the anti Mamdani people were hoping that Adam’s and Coumo might hive away democratic voters and give someone else a chance, 3rd party or republican, but the republican’s didn’t even have a primary, they just picked the same dude who lost to Adams last time, and no 3rd party candidate has emerged from the wood work to rally the imaginary centrist voter base. So really they’ve just split the “the government should do nothing” voter base. Like Sliwa, Adam’s and Coumo are functionally indistinguishable on policy; just “bigger police budget, more tax breaks and deregulation, more cruelty to the minority target of the week”
I wouldn’t be surprised if we see this happen in other local and congressional races. Progressive or socialists candidates win primaries, establishment democrats tacitly endorse a 3rd party run by Their preferred looser of the primary, but instead of splitting their voter base to sabotage the nominee, they split the conservative/reactionary base.
They are gonna India Walton him
The party will support the most establishment option available to them. But this is the first time in about 25 to 30 years that there isn’t a popular, eligible VP. Or party heavy hitter sitting on deck waiting to go. Harris kinda hillaried herself. Who are they gonna run. Fetterman?
If, we have elections in 2028. Ocassio Cortez might be the most viable “establishment adjacent” candidate available to them. With someone like Stewart being a Sanders style populist outsider. But that’s still over three years away and the rate everything is accelerating. We might not make it.
I think the primary, if she runs for president, will consist of Pritzger, Newsom and her. This is speculation from September 2025, so a lot of shit will change between then and now. Chilling as it is to say, there’s no guarantee all three will still be alive.
I don’t think we’ll get any clarity until we see how 2026 plays out.
Please, for god’s sake, don’t give them any ideas!
Shapiro, Buttigieg, Newsom, Pritzker. Hell, the Dem establishment would rather Bloomberg run and win than have AOC in office.
As it is right now, PA would vote for Shapiro. He’s won a lot of goodwill by getting the department of transportation to actually complete road repair projects in reasonable timeframes.
How realistic is a boring DNC candidate overcoming whatever this is. Perhaps it’s time to part ways with the DNC & just make a new Dem party without them. Though admittedly ripping off the bandaid now could be catastrophic timing, I don’t even know.
Actually incredibly realistic, which is the biggest problem.
If the U.S. still has free and fair elections in 2028, it’s quite likely that the American people will reject the GOP in favor of literally anything else. That means the DNC is free to run the most bland, milquetoast neoliberal whose name rhymes with “lose some,” who will do nothing to stop material conditions from deteroriating further nor impose serious consequences on MAGA. Then, four years after his election, U.S. voters will vote for an intelligent fascist because they don’t want an ineffective do-nothing Democrat.
i think the “party with in a party” strategy is much more promising than outright 3rd party runs. As in using the Democratic ticket to make their candidates relevant, but not using the democrats electoral and fundraising infrastructure, instead developing parallel party infrastructure to campaign and mobilize voters.
The DSA (and WFP to a lesser extent) have been much more electorally successful, particularly at the local level, than organizations that just run third party outright. I don’t think the DSA will have much luck in suburban areas, but I think other coalitions with a similar strategy could be successful.
As realistic as what happened in 2016 with the full weight of the DNC being brought to bear on Sanders.
Been saying this for years - a new party is the only way out of this mess. DNC are conservatives, they’re never going to help us when their alternative is cashing checks for millions of dollars from their donors.
Shes most useful to the DNC as the sheepdog she’s been trained to be.