Speculation is growing that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York congresswoman, may run for US president in 2028, with supporters and critics alike noting her rising national profile and the political moment. A Granite State Poll from the University of New Hampshire last month found her leading a potential Democratic field in that crucial state, and a Zogby Strategies national poll this week showed a generic democratic socialist candidate leading a generic Maga candidate 45% to 33%.
Ambition Beyond a Title
Ocasio-Cortez has said, “They assume that my ambition is positional. They assume that my ambition is a title or a seat. And my ambition is way bigger than that. My ambition is to change this country.” Speaking at the University of Chicago in May, she drew spontaneous applause from the audience. In the three months since, speculation about her ambitions has grown louder.
Friends and foes point to voters raging against the ageing Democratic party establishment and hungry for change. Progressives pushing for economic justice and universal healthcare have won victories in mayoral elections and congressional primaries over the past year. Ocasio-Cortez has nearly 10 million followers on Instagram alone and fans ranging from the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) to Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House of Representatives.
Signs of a Stealth Campaign
Ocasio-Cortez has not ruled out a run for president. Last year she joined Senator Bernie Sanders on a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour that drew huge crowds. More recently she has supported progressive candidates across the country. In the past week, she announced on Instagram that she is freezing her eggs, a decision she said was to “feel more in control of my life”, acknowledging the “political risk” in sharing personal family planning details. She also, in an ABC interview with Jonathan Karl, remarked “Woke One was crazy”, quoting a New York city council ally, apparently drawing a line between racial justice struggles and performative excesses.
According to those who knew her, she is not driven by personal ego. She was a volunteer organiser for Sanders’ 2016 campaign. In 2018, with help from progressive organisations such as Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats, she beat 10-term incumbent congressman Joe Crowley in a New York primary.
Authenticity and Relatability
Corbin Trent, her first communications director and co-founder of Justice Democrats, recalled that on primary night, after she beat Crowley, elected officials asked, “What’s next? What’s the pathway here?” He said she resisted the logic of political careerism. “She did not have an idea in her head of this ultimate prize of president or governor or senator.”
Trent argues her appeal lies in authenticity. “Alexandria has two things going for her. She’s genuinely curious about other people. It’s not like she has to pretend to be. I’ve had politicians ask me, ‘How can I be more genuine?’ Well, that’s probably not going to help if you have to fucking ask me that. Two, she is genuinely open about herself. Some people believe that nobody cares what they think or who they are and then other people don’t want you to know who they are. She doesn’t suffer from either of those failings.”
Chris Scott, a political strategist who served as coalition director for Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign, said, “When you talk about AOC’s humble beginnings being a bartender that’s a lived experience story that resonates, especially with millennials, with their upbringing. What you are starting to see – whether it’s conservative or progressive - is people are leaning more and more towards candidates with lived experience that they feel they relate to as politics gets more polarising.”
From Outsider to Insider
Ocasio-Cortez has drawn accusations of going from outsider to insider. She has worked closely with Democratic leadership. This week Pelosi told a Politico summit in Sacramento, California, “I think that she has been so operational, and it’s just wonderful. I know it’s a joy to work with her.”
Cenk Uygur, co-founder of The Young Turks, watches her evolution with tactical despair. He said, “Why did she basically fib on Kamala Harris’s behalf during the DNC and pretend that Kamala Harris cared about Palestinians and was trying to keep the Israelis in check? Because she secretly loves Israel? No, it’s because she wanted to prove to mommy and daddy that she’s a good girl. If you’re a good girl you support Kamala Harris and, if you need to, you fudge her record. Then you go tell Jonathan Karl that your side is ‘crazy’ and you changed and you can’t explain what you changed into or how you changed or why you changed. But the message is super clear both for the establishment and progressives: ‘I’m not going to challenge the system so establishment, you can rest easy, I’m not a threat.’ And they have rested easy. That’s why she’s getting enormously positive coverage.”
The 2028 Democratic primary is expected to be crowded. Potential challengers include Congressman Ro Khanna, Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Gavin Newsom and Jon Ossoff. Some Democrats fear the US may not elect its first female president, a concern expressed by Michelle Obama among others. Centrist Democrats argue the democratic socialist wing struggles to connect with African American communities, which could be decisive in South Carolina.
Nina Turner, national co-chair of Sanders’ 2020 campaign, said, “There are some rumblings in some segments of the Black community that DSA and progressives in general are not doing what it takes to court Black voters and in some ways are leaving us behind for other people who are of colour but not Black. That’s real and so DSA as well as progressives are going to have to do something to say, no, we understand the Black plight and we understand that the survival of working-class people comes through Black liberation. They have not done a good job of doing that. I’m hoping that they will.”
Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist in South Carolina, said, “I would love her to run as far away as she can from being any sort of liability in places where we know we have to win in November where we’ve lost before because people have been used as a weapon of mass political destruction and distraction. If she continues to talk about health care in such a way that is accessible and affordable for all Americans without burning down the system, but making some alterations to the system, she will be a positive voice to the conversation.”
Tara Setmayer, a former Republican communications director, said, “That was a very interesting strategic decision to do that and that’s her way of trying to moderate. But she’s palling around with Bernie Sanders and hasn’t completely, as far as I’m aware, repudiated [the influencer] Hasan Piker and some of those leftwing folks. People are not going to forget that and, in this day and age of the internet, it lives forever.” Setmayer suggested she could instead challenge Chuck Schumer for his New York Senate seat. “If I were advising her, given the failures, unfortunately, of women candidates for the Democrats over the last two election cycles, it would behoove her to run for Senate. She’s almost guaranteed to win that Senate seat. It would provide her more gravitas and she’s young enough that she could do a term or two – or a term and a half like Barack Obama – and then run for president. I don’t think that she can go from being a congresswoman to a serious presidential candidate without some time in the Senate.”
Kurt Bardella, a political commentator and former congressional aide, said, “When you look at the current trajectory of the Democratic party, she is the natural successor to the Bernie Sanders-Elizabeth Warren coalition. She is one of the most gifted communicators in all of politics. She is someone who engenders a tremendous amount of passion, either for or against. She does possess the unique quality of: people give a shit. She’s got a lot more going for her than most people. She never has to worry about standing out. The attention vacuum that we live in, and the way that content works, she is in a league of her own.”
