Report: Colleagues Urging AOC to Primary Schumer
“Multiple Democrats in the Congressional Progressive Caucus and others directly encouraged Ocasio-Cortez to run on Thursday night after Schumer’s announcement.”

The fight over the continuing resolution (CR) cracks me up because as Rep. Thomas Massie pointed out, the CR is a “Continuation of the Biden-Schumer-Johnson 2024 spending agenda for the first 9 months of Trump’s presidency.”
The CR is awful. It keeps the spending without making the DOGE cuts permanent.
The GOP rebelled against it then and now loves it, and the Democrats loved it then and are now rebelling against it.
Well, most. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer caused an explosion on Thursday night when he said he would vote for it.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) led the charge, slamming Schumer for aligning with the Republicans and trying to rally other Democrat Senators to join him.
CNN’s Jake Tapper asked AOC if she would consider Schumer. She danced around the question as politicians often do with questions. But reading between the lines…you can guess yes:
I think that what we need right now is a united Senate Democratic caucus that can stand up for this country and not vote for cloture and not vote for this bill, and I think that the strength that we have is in this moment.
Reconciliation and all of these Republicans do not need Democratic votes for that. They need it for this [break the filibuster] and so the strength of our leadership in this moment is going to demonstrate the strength of our caucus and I cannot urge enough how bad of an idea it is to empower and enable Donald Trump and Elon Musk in this moment. It is dangerous and it is reckless.
Tapper: What do you think of the job that Schumer is doing? Would you ever challenge him, do you think?
AOC: pic.twitter.com/qsECQqctHV
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 14, 2025
In Leesburg, VA, reporters also asked AOC if the Senate Democrats need new leadership.
AOC replied: “We have time to correct course on this decision. Senate Democrats can vote no. We can correct course, and that is the most important thing in front of us right now.”
AOC also told reporters, “There is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal. And this is not just about progressive Democrats, This is across the board — the entire party.”
The Republicans need eight Democrats to reach 60 votes to break the filibuster.
CNN reported colleagues have been urging AOC to primary Schumer:
Privately, House Democrats are so infuriated with Schumer’s decision that some have begun encouraging her to run against Schumer in a primary, according to a Democratic member who directly spoke with Ocasio-Cortez about running at the caucus’ policy retreat. Multiple Democrats in the Congressional Progressive Caucus and others directly encouraged Ocasio-Cortez to run on Thursday night after Schumer’s announcement, this member said.
The member said that Democrats in Leesburg were “so mad” that even centrist Democrats were “ready to write checks for AOC for Senate,” adding that they have “never seen people so mad.”
Asked by CNN about fellow Democrats encouraging her to challenge Schumer, Ocasio-Cortez declined to answer and said she was focused on keeping Democrats from backing the funding bill: “We still have an opportunity to correct course here, and that is my number one priority.”
I doubt it would work. We have learned that humans are creatures of habit. No matter how much they complain, they keep reelecting these people. Why else has Congress become an old people nursing home!?
The average age in the House is 57.5 years.
Lots of Gen X in the House! We are the best generation, but like the Boomers, we have grown disappointed in our generation. My dad still complains how much his generation in the government has let him down.
The average age in the Senate is 64.7 years.
The average has gone down but it’s still not good.
Also, AOC is far left. Regular and moderate Democrats would not choose her over Schumer.
Thing is, Schumer rolled because he knows Democrats would take a bigger hit if the government shut down. His New York colleague Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand sounds like she will vote for the CR or at least to break the filibuster.
BREAKING: As Democrats are stressing over potentially causing a government shutdown, reports are that Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is *SCREAMING* so loud that reporters can hear what she's saying in a closed-door meeting.
She reportedly OPPOSES the shutdown and is… pic.twitter.com/bNRNl88DKV
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 13, 2025
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said he would vote for the CR if the House approved it:
“We don’t agree with what’s been sent to us but, you know, if we withhold our votes, that is going to shut the government down,” Fetterman told host Stephanie Ruhle on MSNBC Tuesday evening.
“And I think that’s one of our core responsibilities in the Senate or in the government here, to not ever … allow the government to shut down,” he added.

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Comments
“Jake Tapper asked AOC if she would consider Schumer. She danced around the question”
Democrats are good at dancing.
And not to be outdone, it now is being reported that Sununu is dropping hints!
It is good when the government shuts down.
It affects very few citizens
Passports renewals, National Park entry and that’s about it
NPS shutdown was Obama trying to make it more painful for actual Citizens
That’s because Democrats choose to shut those down. The more harm to Americans, the happier the Democrats.
the old lefty white wing guard is being taken over,as is america,by the blmplo troops
laws will be changed and the potus will not have to have been born here
and that wont matter anyway
the power is at the local levels and town after town has move at best center left…the locals subsidize multi billion $ businesses….THAT IS NOT MAGA
that is capitulation to lefty
as for the race to the bottom
aoc challenges kamala for best brain salad in need of surgery ( elp reference)
and that is the affirmaction/dei box checking that wont go away
trump or no trump
Chick fight!
Go Democrats! Instantiate the crazy!
It’s time to make it official just how batshit insane New York is willing to be!
Please! Please! Pretty Please With Sugar On It!
I’m going long on popcorn futures.
I already stocked up on popcorn
and have plenty of frozen dark chocolate… gonna be fun …
please challenge Chucky ….
please please please ….
Why would Republicans support CRs? I say vote against it and FORCE a budget session. So what if the govt shuts down. As docturacoat points out: how many will be affected by a shutdown?
Normally I would agree, except that we have the option of reconciliation where 51 votes can carry and therefore we don’t need to give the communists anything.
I don’t believe the reconciliation framework applies to a CR b/c there’s not a true ‘budget’ being brought forward. The CR is merely the continuation of the prior FY budget not ‘new’ budget legislation with new spending authorization and appropriations. Thus there are no competing budget legislation from HoR and Senate to be reconciled.
Ok, if she runs for senate she needs to change her name to Incitatus. She certainly can pull it off with those teeth.
Well, this could provide endless hours of communist on communist violence. That could prove quite entertaining.
Schumer is shrewd enough to know that shutting down the govt. would play right into the hands of Trump and DOGE. It’s hard to complain about layoffs and budget cuts if you’re willing to shut the entire thing down. And it would be a major rug-pull for all those two-bit district court judge demagogues trying to run the country from the bench.
I get the impression that democrats believe that if AnyOleCockleDo, and she herself, primaries Schumer, she gets to be Senate Majority Leader.
There’s no way that AOC can make any difference if she primaries Schumer, because a nitwit junior senator from New York will require the Democrats to reach into their shallow pool of viable candidates and pick from that. Who would then still be the Minority Leader.
Perhaps not the change democrats need, but change none the less.
Put the boomers out to pasture. Set term limits. Do whatever you have to do to stop cancers from festering that do nothing but collect money for themselves while leaving Americans in the dirt
It’s funny that you think AOC isn’t out for the same grift.
Trade an evil Dem for a stupid Dem?
That’s fair dinkum!
I do not dismiss Ocasio-Cortez. Whether or not I believe her to be dumb, she IS dangerous. She has a following, she knows how to keep them engaged and enraged, and she knows how to spew the Marxist promises and BS that have people believing socialist policies to be good.
Very fair point not to underestimate AOC but we should not overestimate her either. The Trump vote in her CD swung from a 55 point gap for Biden in ’20 to a 32 point gap for Harris in ’24. Her own vote % margin of victory dropped by double digits in ’24.
It’s easy to be a ‘darling’ radical of the left or the right when in a CD with a +30 or higher advantage. Running Statewide for US Senate is a different animal than in very uncompetitive CD. IMO what makes her a potential winner for Senate nomination is a generational split in the d/prog with Gen Y and younger dissatisfied with what they view as the timid old guard center/left office holders. The younger d/prog are far more radical in their beliefs. The longer the current crop of d/prog officials in their 70s and 80s cling to power the more frustrated and more subversive the younger d/prog become.
Oh please honey try it. This will be funny.
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