Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is reportedly experiencing reservations about launching a 2028 White House bid, even as fellow Democrats urge her to take the party's reins. A source close to the progressive firebrand reveals that Ocasio-Cortez is genuinely undecided about running in the upcoming Democratic primary, according to Axios.
Despite polls showing the 36-year-old among the leading contenders among Democratic voters, she has expressed skepticism about their legitimacy. A May survey by Atlas Intel placed AOC as the favorite to lead the party in 2028 with 26% support, followed by Pete Buttigieg, Gavin Newsom, and Kamala Harris.
“The way she will evaluate the decision is really around where she believes she can make the most change,” the source told the outlet. Ocasio-Cortez is also considering a direct challenge to the Democratic establishment by launching a Senate bid instead of running for president, according to the same source. An April poll from Data For Progress shows AOC defeating Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer by 19 points in a hypothetical matchup.
The murmurs about her presidential anxieties come as she has traveled across the country, speaking on national issues popular with the Democratic base that extend well beyond her New York City district. In less than a month, AOC has headlined rallies in Philadelphia for Democratic congressional candidates, spoken in Alabama about voting rights, and delivered an energetic speech on racial justice at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. She has also endorsed progressive Democrats running for office nationwide.
“I'm here today, brothers and sisters, with a simple message: We stand together and we are not going back,” she told a packed crowd at Ebenezer Church in Atlanta, Georgia. “What happens in Georgia happens to New York, what happens to Tennessee happens to California, what happens to Louisiana happens to all of us, Ebenezer, because this is America. We are not divided by state, we are united by our humanity and common citizenship.” She continued her appeal to the deep-blue Democratic base in Philadelphia by declaring that “MAGA is the last dying breath of the Confederacy.”
Despite reports that AOC is skeptical of a presidential run, potential candidates have a long history of denying their White House ambitions only to change their minds a year or two later. Barack Obama in January 2006 said he would not run for president in 2008, only to reverse course ten months later. In 1990, Bill Clinton told reporters he was committed to serving out his four-year term as Arkansas governor, only to change his mind a year later.
