Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic Socialist darling of New York City, sparked controversy last week when she was asked about her political aspirations.
Legendary Obama strategist David Axelrod questioned Ocasio-Cortez about her plans to run for higher office in 2028 while she was speaking at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics on Friday.
“They assume that my ambition is positional,” Ocasio-Cortez retorted. “They assume that my ambition is a title or seat, and my ambition is way bigger than that.” My goal is to transform this nation.
“Presidents come and go,” she said, recounting a wish list of socialist ideals she wanted to see implemented nationwide. She said, “Senate [and] House seats, elected officials come and go, but single-payer healthcare is forever,” to applause from the audience. “A living wage is forever.” The rights of workers are unchangeable. rights of women. That’s all.
“When you’re not attached.” The New York Democrat went on, “It is incredibly liberating when you haven’t been like fantasising about being this or that since the time you were seven years old, because I get to wake up every day and say, ‘How am I going to meet the moment?’
There is increasing conjecture that Ocasio-Cortez would run for president in 2028. If current Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer decides not to seek reelection or if she chooses to challenge him in a primary, she may also run for the Senate.
On May 8, 2026, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, speaks with David Axelrod on the filibuster during a discussion organised by the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.
On Sunday, October 26, 2025, in New York, Senator Bernie Sanders, left, Zohran Mamdani, middle, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez take the stage for a rally for Mamdani.
According to a Daily Mail and JL Partners survey conducted in March, 7% of Democratic primary voters supported Ocasio-Cortez among the contenders for 2028.
23% of prospective Democratic primary voters supported former vice president and 2024 Democratic nominee Harris, while 19% chose California governor Gavin Newsom.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and former 2020 presidential candidate who has relocated to Michigan but continues to make frequent appearances on cable news, was the only other Democrat to receive double digits in the poll.
Buttigieg recorded ten percent. Ten percent more Democratic voters expressed uncertainty.
It is doubtful that candidates will begin formally announcing their 2028 campaigns for another year.
On May 8, 2026, Ocasio-Cortez and David Axelrod talk about the filibuster in a discussion organised by the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.
Earlier this spring, Ocasio-Cortez came under fire for allegedly using campaign cash to pay for ketamine therapy, according to an ethics complaint.
The New York Representative allegedly spent more than $19,000 of the money on meetings with psychiatrist Dr. Brian W. Boyle in 2025, according to a complaint filed by the conservative non-profit National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC).
Both the Office of Congressional Conduct (OCC) and the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) received the complaint.
According to FEC filings, Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign sent Dr. Boyle four distinct expenditures labelled as “leadership training and consulting.”
According to the complaint, the money was “expended instead for personal psychiatric services provided to AOC or members of her campaign staff.”
As a result, the campaign committee misreported those expenses to the FEC, according to the lawsuit.
