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.
Who are they gonna run. Fetterman?
Please, for god’s sake, don’t give them any ideas!
Who are they gonna run
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.
People still think there will be fair elections in 2028?
No but that doesn’t mean we throw in the fucking towel, come on
They weren’t entirely fair to begin with, given how our system works. But that’s besides the point. She is a politician, running for office is what she knows how to do. If they shut down elections by then, then she hasn’t exactly wasted much outside of her immediate network by preparing for them. If they aren’t successful at doing so (which there’s at least some chance of, like if they manage to piss off their SC justices somehow enough for them to not go along with some critical step, or if Trump’s health conditions catch up with him and his people start infighting, etc), then being prepared for an election would give a better chance at seizing any such opportunity than deciding not to bother planning for one and getting surprised would.
Primaries are not fair at all for either party . Only the proper candidates win, as a rule, to advance to the general elections. And many states have problems proving the winner actually won, because of a lack of paper ballots and a lack of recounts.
This has been going on for longer than many reading this have been alive, and should not change in practice for several decades.
Given the history, it’s time the Democratic will win next year and in 2028. They will patch up some damage and will loose again later to the next wave of gop.
This is not democracy.
Only the proper candidates win, as a rule
Was Trump winning an example of that rule, or a counterexample?
Trump made a lot of people a lot of money. So, he was indeed proper.
Senate. While I’ve got no problem with a woman as President enough of America seems to that I’d rather not hand the Presidency to the fascists on a silver platter.
Weird how you guys always focus on the ladybits as the unifying factor between Clinton and Harris losing and not their shitty campaigns to the center and inability to have a single authentic moment.
It’s a convenient excuse that means the establishment, with its 20% approval rate and record of abject failures both electorally and in countering Republican messaging, doesn’t need to change a single thing that might upset the donor class that has caused them to inexplicably cling to positions 70+% of the party do not hold.
No one wants what the gerontocracy is selling. We already can’t afford housing and will never have any sort of financial stability because our parents (I’m Gen X) decided they should get all the money.
And you want me to vote for a septuagenarian? Fuck off. Go find a nice porch with a rocking chair from all your lobbyist dollars.
Yeah well fuckin pardon me for looking at similarities between what’s worked lately and what hasn’t so we can get out from under fascism as quick as fucking possible.
Jesus Christ if we keep going after each other we’ve got a snowball’s chance in hell at pulling it off.
YOU are the one causing the division! JFC, dropping in, saying “no women” and then complaining about division is just incredible.
The “they’re just sexist, that was the problem” isn’t just some random observation from people trying to just figure out what works. It’s an intentional campaign to scapegoat women for losses caused by the political class who keep trying to run the same campaign and failing.
They’re not coming with hyper-cautious analyses saying “no women, no abandoning the base, no campaigning with Republicans, no timid neoliberal policies”. They’d still be wrong, but at least that would seem like a legit attempt by a simple mind to avoid anything that might possibly be a weakness. Instead they just stop with the first. They’re looking for a scapegoat, because all those other factors were getting pretty unpopular in the party and they desperately needed some other explanation.
Them being women isn’t the problem; the fact that clearly enough voters aren’t comfortable with it is. I’m sorry you can’t wrap your head around that.
Bless your heart!
