AOC opens up about race, gender in weighing possible 2028 White House bid

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., raised concerns during an interview published Tuesday about how her race and gender could factor into a potential 2028 presidential bid.

"Pretty candidly, I think about my identity," Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with The New York Times. "I’m not naïve to the fact that we are living under a very regressive administration, and I happen to be a woman, and I, you know, happen to be Latina. And I think that there’s a lot of conversation about electability, and I don’t kind of shy away from those realities."

The progressive congresswoman said of a possible White House run, "I think about it personally."

"I am 36, I’m about to turn 37 years old — and what that means for my life," she added.

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"This country has never elected a female president. Why are we pretending that this is not a factor?" she told the Times. "That doesn’t make it impossible, but to act as though it’s not a factor in anything ever is really a form of, like, denialism."

Ocasio-Cortez said the discussion around race and gender was often seen as a complaint or excuse.

"I often hesitate to even talk about it," she told the outlet, "because people then just register it as an excuse or a complaint."

"If you’re asking me about the things that I weigh, of course, that’s part of what I weigh," she told the Times of possibly running for president. "It’s funny because it’s kind of like, everyone else is allowed to talk about it, but I’m not?"

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She argued people get defensive when gender is suggested as playing a role in electoral politics.

"I experience it tremendously — from the right and from the left," she told the Times.

Ocasio-Cortez has been generating 2028 buzz. LinkedIn co-founder and Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman described the progressive firebrand as "pragmatic." Hoffman made the comments at Politico's Decoded Summit in September, and said former Vice President Kamala Harris would have a "very challenging path" to the nomination.

"It depends a little bit," Hoffman said when asked whether he would support Ocasio-Cortez for a 2028 run. "I think she's much more pragmatic than people give her credit for."

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Far-left streamer Hasan Piker said he would absolutely campaign for AOC should she decide to run in 2028.

Ocasio-Cortez topped a July poll from the University of New Hampshire Granite State. In the poll, AOC was one point ahead of former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and 17 points ahead of Harris.

The polling average as of Sept. 22, according to the New York Times, has Harris leading with 27%, followed by Gov. Gavin Newsom at 16%, Buttigieg with 10%, and Ocasio-Cortez also at 10%.

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Judy Pino, advisor on Hispanic issues and a Spanish-language spokesperson for Independent Women and The LIBRE Initiative, reacted to Ocasio-Cortez' remarks in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Pino said, "Whether America is ready for a Latina president isn’t the question. As a Latina, I find that framing beside the point and, frankly, insulting." 

"It reduces a serious debate about the future of this country to gender and ethnicity when Americans are worried about whether they can afford groceries, buy a home, grow a business, and create a better future for their children," she continued. 

Pino said Ocasio-Cortez "identifies" with democratic socialism, and argued, "we should believe candidates when they tell us what they stand for."

"For many Latinos, that debate has particular resonance. Families from Cuba, Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America have witnessed governments embrace socialism while expanding state control and restricting economic and political freedom. Those experiences help explain why the word ‘socialism’ can carry consequences far beyond a political slogan for some Latino families,' Pino said in the statement. 

Pino said Latino voters were more focused on AOC's policies rather than her gender or ethnicity. 

"That's the debate America should be having: not whether we're ready for a Latina president, but whether Americans want to move this country in a socialist direction," she said.