During a Friday interview with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in Chicago, Democratic strategist David Axelrod noted that many Democrats want to see her run for president in 2028. The crowd responded to the prospect of her candidacy with thunderous applause.
He said there are others who would like her to challenge Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in a 2028 primary. Once again, the audience broke into cheers.
Well, as it turns out, Ocasio-Cortez’s ambitions are “way bigger” than either one of those offices. She wants to “change the country.”
But first, she took aim at a critical op-ed published by The Washington Post editorial board last week in response to a controversial remark she’d made the previous day: “You can’t earn a billion dollars.”
She said, “In this op-ed that [Amazon CEO Jeff] Bezos paid for in The Washington Post, there was a veiled threat — it 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 going to — we’ll make an example out of you.'”
Having set the record straight — at least in her own mind — the congresswoman continued:
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….When you haven’t been fantasizing about being this or that since you were seven years old, it is tremendously liberating. Because I get to wake up every day and say, how am I going to meet the moment?…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 decision can I make today that’s going to get us closer to that future, stronger, faster, and better than yesterday?’
The implication could hardly be clearer. Ocasio-Cortez does not view herself as merely another ambitious politician climbing the Democratic ladder. In her telling, she is something larger — a transformational figure uniquely positioned to reshape the nation’s political and economic order. Titles and offices, she insists, are secondary to the historic mission she has assigned herself.
Ocasio-Cortez first won her seat in Congress by defeating 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley, then-chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and a close ally of Nancy Pelosi, in a low-turnout Democratic primary in June 2018. Her upset victory shocked the political world.
Upon her arrival in January 2019, the 29-year-old former bartender took Washington, D.C., by storm. Despite her lack of experience and political knowledge, her charisma and media savvy quickly elevated her to the Democratic Party’s upper ranks. It wasn’t long before talk of higher office — even the presidency — gained traction.
But let’s face it. For all the confidence and rhetorical polish she tries to project, the substance behind it is remarkably thin. We still remember her cringeworthy response when asked if the U.S. “would or should commit troops to defend Taiwan” in the event of a Chinese invasion at the Munich Security Conference in February.
Clearly in over her head, she said:
Um, you know, I think that, uh, this is such a, uh, you know, I — I think that this is a, umm, this is of course a, uh, a very longstanding, um, policy of the United States – uh and I think what we are hoping for is we want to make sure that we never get to that point.
The shocking sound bite was replayed on a near-constant loop by media outlets around the world for days. The conclusion was clear: Ocasio-Cortez was not ready for prime time.
For those who may have missed it, her response can be heard in the clip below.
The Post’s editors observed that Ocasio-Cortez appears to hold a dim view of human potential. Evidently, however, she makes an exception for herself, regarding her own potential as boundless.
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner and Legal Insurrection. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on LinkedIn.
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