AOC Sparks Speculation that She Might Run for President

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed presidential nominee Bernie Sanders in October and since then she’s become a vocal supporter that’s leading some to believe she has her eyes out for the White House. She recently joined the Vermont senator in Nevada for his campaign, where she drew a large crowd and gave a speech entirely in Spanish which drew headlines as much for her as for him.

“The future of the Democratic Party is not Pete Buttigieg. It’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,” Will Rodriguez-Kennedy, president of the California Young Democrats, which has endorsed Sanders, told Politico. “She has gripped the attention of fellow millennials across the country. The Green New Deal has changed the conversation on environmental action in the Democratic Party.”

War is a class conflict, too. The rich and powerful who open war escape the consequences of their decisions. It’s not their children sent into the jaws of violence.

It is often the vulnerable, the poor, & working people -who had little to no say in conflict – who pay the price. https://t.co/jlC35MYsQq

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 3, 2020

Sanders has already confirmed that if he becomes president, AOC will “play a very, very important role — no question” he told ABC. While AOC has already shared she’d be honored to be vice president though, at 30, she has to wait five more years to reach the age required to be VP (and president), “It’d be an honor to be vice president” she told Noticias Telemundo.

According to a former aide of Sanders and AOC who spoke to Politico, the senator polls first or second place in surveys of Latino Democrats and there’s no denying AOC’s role in amplifying his presence among people of color. “AOC is popular among many diverse constituencies in the Democratic base, and particularly among unlikely voters,” former aide Waleed Shahid said.

Considered a Sanders “surrogate,” AOC has been discussing their shared progressive political views during interviews, from climate change with the Green New Deal to free education and healthcare for all. This platform that helped launch her political career — and led to her becoming the youngest woman in Congress — is what Sanders commended her for from the start. “She ran an extraordinary campaign,” Sanders told CBS’s Face the Nation. “And the reason that she won is she ran on ideas that were relevant to the working people in her district. She put together a strong grassroots campaign and she worked her tail off.”

Some have criticized her for supporting a white man as a prominent woman of color however she retaliated by promoting unity: “I’m actually very excited about this partnership because it shows what we have to do in our country, is that we have to come together across race, across gender, across generation.”

AOC did not comment on a potential presidential run in 2024 but if she continues on the path she’s currently on, there’s no denying she’ll be an even more powerful player in politics by 2024.