Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t deny 2028 speculation: ‘My ambition is to change this country’
by Sarah Davis - 05/09/26 9:28 AM ET
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is leaving the door open for a presidential run in 2028.
Democratic strategist David Axelrod asked the lawmaker during a Friday event in Chicago about the speculation that she will enter the race for the White House.
The four-term House member pushed back on an assumption that her “ambition is positional,” specifically citing an op-ed in the Washington Post.
“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,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Presidents come and go … elected officials come and go, but single-payer healthcare is forever.”
Ocasio-Cortez told Axelrod that she tailors her political ambitions to “meet the moment.”
“Conditions change radically all the time, so I make my response less to an attachment to some positional, like title or position, and working backwards from there, but I make decisions by waking up in the morning, looking out the window and observing the conditions of this country and saying, ‘What move or what decision can I make today that is going to get us closer to that future, stronger, faster, better than yesterday?’” she said on Friday.
The lawmaker is part of a lengthy list of Democratic favorites to wrest back control of the White House in 2028.
Other Democrats on this list include Gov. Gavin Newsom (Calif.), former Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (Mich.), former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Gov. Josh Shapiro (Penn.) and Gov. Andy Beshear (Ky.).
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) praised the lineup of potential 2028 Democratic contenders when he was asked at a recent event in New York about whether he would consider a presidential bid.
“Look, we have a pretty good bench,” Pritzker said. “So that’s my answer. My answer is: I don’t know what I’ll be doing after — I hope I win reelection, after. But I can tell you this: I’m going to fight like hell to elect a Democrat in 2028.”
On the Republican side, Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are widely seen as likely candidates to succeed President Trump once his second term is up.
“I’m not sure if anyone would run against those two,” Trump told reporters in October. “I think if they ever formed a group it would be unstoppable.”
However, Trump has also not entirely ruled out seeking a third term — a move that would violate the 22nd Amendment. The Trump Organization debuted “Trump 2028” hats last April and the president told reporters in October that he would “love to” run again.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5870909-ocasio-cortez-2028-speculation/
