Ocasio-Cortez Not Ruling White House Bid Out

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) was standing in front of thousands of angry Democrats and urging them to get behind candidates willing to brawl—even if it means unseating members of their own party.

“We need a Democratic Party that fights harder for us,” the 35-year-old New Yorker said to applause at a recent rally in battleground Arizona. At another event on her Western tour with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), the crowd periodically chanted “primary Chuck,” encouraging her to challenge Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.).

Ocasio-Cortez hasn’t made a decision on her future but isn’t ruling anything out, including primarying the Senate minority leader or even a presidential bid, according to a person familiar with her thinking.

After bruising losses in November, Democrats have struggled to consolidate around a strategy to take on President Trump, even as voters across the ideological spectrum beg them to do more. Ocasio-Cortez has emerged as one of the party’s leading voices. But some Democrats worry she will turn off the centrist voters they need to win competitive races.

“I’m just looking to see if there’s, like a lightning rod, someone that we can kind of fall behind and be sort of the leader of the Democratic Party,” said Eladio Ledesma, a 33-year-old account director who attended a recent town hall in Queens hosted by Ocasio-Cortez.

The liberal populism she is pitching alongside Sanders is resonating with the base. The pair have spoken in front of crowds bigger than the ones Sanders drew during his two presidential runs. She raised nearly $10 million in the first quarter of 2025—a haul in line with some presidential candidates. Some centrist lawmakers are now echoing similar populist talking points, including calling for higher taxes on the wealthy, particularly billionaire Elon Musk.

Her remarks in Tempe were in reference to a GOP government-funding bill that passed with the help of Schumer despite most Democrats opposing it. The move sparked efforts to recruit Ocasio-Cortez to challenge Schumer when he is up for re-election in 2028.

“I want you to look at every level of office around and support Democrats who fight, because those are the ones who can actually win against Republicans,” Ocasio-Cortez said in Tempe.

“Rep. Ocasio-Cortez has always been a strong ally to fight alongside and I look forward to continuing to do so for years to come,” Schumer said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal, citing multiple pieces of legislation the pair had worked on together.

Some of Ocasio-Cortez’s allies have encouraged her to look beyond the House.

“I’ve already said it: Senate looks good,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell (D., Mich.), who serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee with Ocasio-Cortez. Dingell said she would be “highly surprised” if Ocasio-Cortez was a presidential candidate in 2028.

Patrick Barrett, 83, a retiree who went to the Arizona town hall, said despite aligning with a more traditional wing of the party, he would support Ocasio-Cortez if she ran for president.

She “is a good bridge between those younger people with experiences, minorities, very very urban attuned to all of that, but also working class as hell,” Barrett said.

Still, her rise is worrying some Democrats who say the base is taking the wrong lessons from the 2024 election. Elevating Ocasio-Cortez, potentially as the party’s presidential nominee, would further alienate the independent and moderate Republican voters Democrats have relied on to win swing states, they said.

“She has no chance” in battleground states, said Joe Wolf, a Democratic strategist who helped get Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs elected in 2022. “The secret to success in Arizona as a Democrat is being right in the middle of the road.”

Asked by conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt if he thought Ocasio-Cortez could be the Democratic nominee in 2028, Trump said she had charisma, but he was unsure about her speaking ability because he hadn’t seen her interviewed often. “I don’t know about her debating ability,” he said Wednesday. Mike Casca, Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, said the congresswoman speaks to reporters every day at the Capitol.

Democrats have taken different messages from the November election where their party lost ground with nearly every demographic group. Progressives like Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders said the party didn’t talk about issues such as income inequality and climate change that excite the young, diverse coalition needed to win.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom—who is also considering a 2028 run for president—said Democrats turned off voters by focusing too much on cultural issues.

Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, another possible Democratic presidential candidate, have both been less confrontational and even appeared with Trump since he took office. Both rely on partnerships with the federal government to lead their states.

Ocasio-Cortez emerged on the national stage in 2018, when the waitress and bartender pulled off an upset victory in the Democratic primary against a longtime member who had been seen as a potential future speaker.

On Capitol Hill, she has advocated for an aggressive approach to addressing climate change, a universal healthcare system and raising the minimum wage.

But while more young progressives are being elected to office, party leadership skews older and more moderate.

On Monday, Ocasio-Cortez passed on a second bid for the top Democratic position on the House Oversight Committee after losing out last year. She said the dynamics in the House caucus that gave priority to seniority hadn’t changed as much as she had hoped.

Despite being seen as a member of the party’s left flank, Ocasio-Cortez has at times angered progressives, including by defending Vice President Kamala Harris’s record on Gaza, where some Democrats said she was too supportive of Israel. Ocasio-Cortez has labeled Israel’s war on Hamas and the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have died a “genocide” and called for a cease-fire.

“Shame on you, I used to support you,” a pro-Palestinian activist shouted at Ocasio-Cortez during her recent New York town hall.

Sanders, the progressive icon who first inspired Ocasio-Cortez to run, has said it is unlikely he will run for president again. Sanders is 83 years old.

And while he has praised Ocasio-Cortez as someone who truly understands the working class, he isn’t ready to say if she is the future of the party.

“There are dozens and dozens of really strong progressives out there who I think are gonna be the future politically,” he told the Journal.