A progressive organization urging Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. to run for president in 2028 has kicked off a campaign to collect signatures nationwide in support of the congresswoman’s potential run.
Ready For AOC, which describes itself as a “people-powered,” “grassroots,” and “unaffiliated” organization, launched the campaign Monday, urging supporters of the congresswoman to ask her to run for president.
“Movements like this work when they’re loud and early — long before the candidate says yes. The proof isn’t money. It’s names. Yours makes the case louder,” the campaign’s website states.
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The website boasts 804 signatures as of Tuesday morning, though representatives for the project claim to be aiming for 10,000 community leaders to join their mission, according to the New York Times. The group also claims to have 500 political and union leaders across 35 states on board, the outlet reported.
“The goal is to build the infrastructure of a grassroots movement in the case that she decides to run, but also to demonstrate to her that, ‘Look, there is a movement behind you ready to power you to victory should you choose to run for president,'” Ravi Sahai, a spokesman for the group, told the New York Times.
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Ocasio-Cortez herself has been coy about a potential run, but hasn’t ruled it out. Asked by Fox News Digital in July if she’d consider running, she replied “I have genuinely not really weighed seriously anything past the midterm elections.”
However, following a sweeping blue wave in the midterms that saw voters punch ballots for numerous members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and other far-left candidates, the DSA’s ranks are emboldened by the results and vocally making the case that America is ready for a far-left president.
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“For so long, we have been told that democratic socialists would be a liability,” Gustavo Gordillo, the co-chair of New York City’s DSA, said while speaking at an Astoria, Queens watch party on election night. “We’ve been told for so long that if we elect democratic socialists throughout the country that we won’t be able to win races in Texas, in Florida. Tonight, we actually elected a democratic socialist in Tampa in a Republican MAGA-held seat,” he bragged, according to state outlet City & State New York.
The DSA, which will hold a citywide convention in New York on Nov. 14, will hold a vote on whether the organization will formally push for Ocasio-Cortez to run, Gordillo revealed to a crowd at the watch party, City & State reported.
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Despite the buzz, however, Ocasio-Cortez has downplayed speculation following the election, telling reporters that Democrats need to focus on governing over running.
“The last thing that people want to hear from me or any other politician is about the next election. What they actually want to hear from us is about what we are going to do with the electoral results they just gave us on Tuesday,” she told reporters Monday.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, arguably the DSA’s biggest success story, recently told NBC that America is “absolutely” ready for a socialist president.
“We have heard time and again over the ten months that I’ve been in office here in New York City, that what we’re doing here can’t work elsewhere, that what people are concerned about here isn’t what people are concerned about across the country,” Mamdani told NBC’s Kristen Welker the day after election day. “And what we saw last night is that the struggles of Americans in Atlanta, of Americans in Allentown, are not all that different than the struggles of Americans in Astoria.”
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Mamdani, who was frequently joined by Ocasio-Cortez while campaigning for mayor in 2025, has not specifically mentioned any potential 2028 candidate by name, but is reportedly meeting with labor and union leaders to organize a potential progressive bloc for 2028.
Ocasio-Cortez was tabbed as the frontrunner to be the Democratic nominee in a July poll from New Hampshire Granite State, however a more recent poll from Atlas Insights had her tied with Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.
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Other potential Democratic candidates being eyeballed as would-be nominees include former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.
Fox News Digital contacted Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, Ready For AOC and the Democratic Socialists of America for further comment.
