Progressives — and potential 2028 presidential candidates — waiting on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s decision about her political future will be waiting for a minute.
“I will be deliberating this privately, but I probably will not be sharing anything publicly for a little while,” she told The Washington Sun.
The progressive political star is back in the House this week following Democrats’ blowout midterm results, but questions about how long she’ll stay there are only growing as allies quietly speculate about her next move. Democrats are more empowered than they’ve been in years heading into 2027 and progressives see an opportunity to exert more influence over the party.
If Ocasio-Cortez decides to move on from the House, she will have options. Will she mount a Senate run — potentially as a primary challenger to presumptive Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who could seek reelection in 2028 — or set her sights on the White House, a prospect her supporters have eagerly anticipated since her rise in national politics began?
Trending
“AOC should run for president because her marginal utility in the House is very reduced. She’d be a slight optimizer in the Senate, but she could be a game changer for the entire country if she ran for and won the presidency,” Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, told The Sun. “My analogy is moving a queen to the center of the chessboard. It’s a power play. Your queen might be taken. Maybe she will lose the primary. But also, you’re putting yourself in a position to win.”
Ocasio-Cortez has begun bulking up her political operation. She recently hired Freeland Ellis, who previously worked for Sen. Bernie Sanders, to help manage communications.
Separately, a group of progressives has launched a grassroots campaign to encourage Ocasio-Cortez to run for president. And her political team released a memo on Election Day about her work leading up to the midterms saying that “candidates from rural districts and battleground seats see her as an asset for their general election campaigns.” The memo also played up her engagement specifically within New York.
Some Democrats wonder whether Ocasio-Cortez is willing to anger colleagues within her party by mounting a primary challenge against Schumer, whom Democrats believe is leaning toward another run in 2028, when he’ll be 77 years old. Even though she entered the political scene by ousting longtime incumbent Joe Crowley in a stunning 2018 primary upset, Ocasio-Cortez has become an influential player within the Democratic Party and is generally deferential to party leadership.
If Schumer opts not to run for reelection, it could pave the way for her to launch a bid for the seat over running for president.
“She’s in a great position where she’ll be impactful whatever she does,” said Lauren Hitt, a political consultant who worked in Ocasio-Cortez’s House office from 2020 to 2024. “If she decides that now that Democrats have a majority in the Senate, and that is interesting to her, then I could see her being a very impactful player there.”
Sign up for The Stakeout, The Sun’s Congress newsletter you actually want to read.
If she skips on a presidential bid, there are also early concerns from some of her supporters that she’ll miss a political opening and not get another shot at the White House in the future.
Regardless of what she chooses, Ocasio-Cortez made clear she has other immediate priorities.
“Right now people are wanting to hear about what we’re going to do with the results and the election that we just had, and the seats and the power that they just gave us on Tuesday,” she told The Sun this week. “Frankly, I think that any discussion of [2028] is moot until people hear about the investigations that we’re delivering and the legislation that we’re passing and what we’re doing on health care, wages, unions and more.”
Democrats expect to see other progressives join the presidential primary field. Rep. Ro Khanna has hinted at a run for months, and his political allies recently launched a “draft” campaign. There are more out-of-the-box possibilities talked about as well, like United Automobile Workers President Shawn Fain.
Rep.-elect Brad Lander told The Sun that if Ocasio-Cortez opts against running for president, it’d leave progressives without a clear choice.
“If she were to run for president, she would unify progressives. She would unify the left. If she chooses to run for Senate, I think there’s a much more open question about the shape of the presidential field and how progressives will relate to it,” he said. “She has to make her own choice.”
“I have enormous regard for her. If she announces for president, I’m a day one supporter. If she runs for Senate, I’m in her corner,” Lander said. “That’s a big decision to make, and I leave that decision to her. I’ll be enthusiastic to support her.”
Sanders, whose endorsement for 2028 will be essential for progressive candidates, said in a press conference Tuesday there are bigger issues in the Democratic Party right now.
“It’s easy to talk about personalities. Is AOC going to run for president? Well, you can write 50 articles on that,” he said. “But what about writing an article about why we’re the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people? What about writing an article about, is it appropriate that one guy owns more wealth than the bottom half of American households?”
Author
