AOC Brushes Aside 2028 Question: ‘My Ambition Is Way Bigger’

On Friday night, during a conversation hosted by the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics with Democratic strategist David Axelrod, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) brushed aside the question of whether she’ll run for president in 2028, declaring, “My ambition is way bigger.”

Axelrod first brought up the idea of her either running for president or replacing Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in 2028.

Ocasio-Cortez responded:

You know, it’s funny because in this op-ed that Jeff Bezos paid for in The Washington Post, there was this line that you even mentioned earlier, about, “Well, as a potential 2028 contender, X, Y, Z.” And in the context of that, it was very clear that this was a veiled threat, right? This was the elite saying, “If you want this job, you just stepped out of line. And we want you to know where the real power is. And it’s in the modern-day barons who own the Post and own the algorithms, and we’re gonna — we’ll make an example out of you.”

And what’s funny about that is that they assume that my ambition is positional. 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. Presidents come and go, Senate, House seats, elected officials, come and go, but single-payer healthcare is forever. A living wage is forever. Workers’ rights are forever. Women’s rights — all of that.

And so, anyways, a finer point to your question is that, when you aren’t attached, right? When you haven’t been, like, fantasizing about being this or that since the time you were seven years old, um, it is tremendously liberating, because I get to wake up every day and say, “How am I gonna meet the moment?”

Watch the full clip above via C-SPAN.

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