Please run! Please!

"Will AOC Run for President in 2028?"

<https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2024/11/29/aoc-2028-plans-n2648386>

'While polls of Democratic primary voters have been showing that they
supposedly want Vice President Kamala Harris to run again, there's a new
name out there, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), a member of the
far-left Squad.

On Friday morning, The Hill put out an analysis of potential 2028
Democratic candidates, with Harris topping that list of seven
candidates, and AOC closing it out. As their blurb on the congresswoman
read:

When Democrats talk about the future of the party, the 35-year-old New
York congresswoman’s name always bubbles to the top.

Democrats have long been impressed with Ocasio-Cortez’s ability to “cut
through the BS and tell it like it is,” the second Democratic strategist
said.

“She’s somebody who can cut through the noise and doesn’t talk like
Washington.”

Democrats say Ocasio-Cortez would be a magnet for young voters and would
have little trouble using social media, podcasts and other online tools,
as she has been doing since she was elected to Congress in 2018.

While Ocasio-Cortez was once aligned with progressives including Sen.
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), she has since backed more centrist candidates.

Still, some Democrats say she still represents a more leftist wing of
the party to some voters, something that could hurt her if she pursues
higher office.

“She and the ‘squad’ started pushing too hard, too fast,” the first
strategist said. “D.C. doesn’t work that way. And our party doesn’t work
that way. We need to get back to the basics.”

The congresswoman is indeed young, which might explain why she's
considered "the future of the party," but she, and the Squad as a whole,
also represent the far-left, radical wing of the Democratic Party. With
such a "future," Democrats can very well expect to lose and keep losing.
While the article relies on unnamed Democratic strategists, it's also
worth reminding that Democratic strategist James Carville has been at
odds with AOC and other progressives when it comes to Democrats losing.
This includes the 2021 gubernatorial race in Virginia, where Republican
Gov. Glenn Youngkin beat former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

The Democratic Party also has to reckon with their antisemitism. Harris
ultimately picked Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) as her running mate, despite how
it seemed all but certain she would pick Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), the
popular and moderate (enough) sitting governor of Pennsylvania. Harris
lost the commonwealth, though, in addition to the six other swing
states. Shapiro is also Jewish. While there's reports that he had a bad
interview with Harris and didn't want to leave to be someone's number
two, it can't be ignored that progressives were calling for Harris to
pick someone else, including Walz, over Shapiro.

AOC herself plays a role in the antisemitism, as she was called out
early last week for blaming the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC) for Democrats losing. Such a post of hers further highlighted
Democrats in disarray, as Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), who primaried
President Joe Biden for the 2024 cycle before he was forced out by his
fellow Democrats, chimed in to call out the congresswoman.

It's also worth looking to where AOC actually stands in those polls
showing a plurality want Harris as their nominee. An Emerson College
poll released this week showed that 37 percent of Democratic primary
voters picked Harris, while 35 percent were undecided, and AOC, just
like six other candidates, had only 1 percent support.

The week before, an Echelon Insights poll showed Harris with 41 percent
support, while 16 percent were unsure. AOC did slightly better than the
Emerson College poll, though she still only enjoyed 4 percent support,
with five candidates plus the "undecided" option polling better than
her.

Such speculation over AOC possibly running has been a trending topic
over X on Friday, with conservative users actually expressing hope that
AOC will indeed run, especially with how easy to beat she's perceived to
be.

Joe Concha shared his predictions for the Electoral Map if AOC is the
Democratic nominee, with Vice President-elect JD Vance as the the
Republican nominee winning by 359-179.

Of course, this is merely speculation. It's also worth reminding that
there has been fawning over AOC since before she had even completed her
first term, and when she wasn't even yet old enough to be eligible to
run. "AOC for president? The buzz has begun," read the headline for a
POLITICO post in December 2019. She's also had to make clear she wasn't
running for the U.S. Senate this cycle, after there was speculation
she'd primary Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

Chatter over AOC, or any candidate that isn't Harris, is likely out
there because Democrats know they can't nominate this year's failed
nominee once more. Harris has yet to ever win a single primary vote,
given that she dropped out in December 2019, before any 2020 primary
contests were held, and was installed as the nominee in July, after
Biden dropped out and quickly endorsed her.

On Monday, POLITICO put out a piece highlighting how Harris hadn't
closed the door to running again in 2028, or running for governor of
California On Tuesday night, the DNC released a video message of Harris
appearing intoxicated, which led to speculation that they were putting
such a video out there when they did to end her political career