Today’s cautious AOC would not have endorsed the AOC of 2018

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) finally endorsed progressive Abdul El-Sayed last week in Michigan’s fiercely contested Democratic primary for an open U.S. Senate seat. The move was long overdue. In contrast, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) had endorsed El-Sayed more than a year ago and have been campaigning for him in the state.

This year, Ocasio-Cortez has gained serious media attention as a possible 2028 presidential candidate. But she could face erosion of the grassroots support she needs for a national campaign. By refusing to endorse progressives as they take on incumbent Democrats in competitive primaries, she has implicitly spurned those now trying to follow in her footsteps to Congress.

The 29-year-old activist Melat Kiros just defeated a 15-term House Democrat in a Denver district last week, after receiving Sanders’s endorsement. It was the fourth time in eight days that a democratic socialist had won a Democratic primary for Congress in a deep-blue district.

In New York City, three socialists won primary races, including two against incumbents. Mayor Zohran Mamdani had endorsed all three. Two of them, Brad Lander and Claire Valdez, had also received endorsements from Sanders.

Ocasio-Cortez, however, had not endorsed any of these winners.

The contrast with the Sanders approach is stark. Vermont’s senior senator has made a large number of endorsements to help promising progressive candidates get across the finish line, including when they are challenging Democratic members of Congress. Ocasio-Cortez is much more cautious, and ironically averse to endorsing upstart Democrats who are running in primaries against incumbents, especially her fellow House incumbents.

The galling reality is that the Ocasio-Cortez of 2026 would probably not have endorsed the Ocasio-Cortez of 2018.

Eight years ago, Ocasio-Cortez was the longshot hopeful who defeated the powerful 10-term Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), a fixture in New York politics since Ronald Reagan’s second term as president. But as Axios noted in mid-June, she “has avoided backing left-wing insurgents trying to unseat Democratic House incumbents, even though she got her start in politics by ousting a sitting member of her party.”

This hesitancy has already backfired. Ocasio-Cortez now has a record of remaining on the sidelines during historic election campaigns in New York and Colorado. As a result, her image of wielding political clout has been diminished rather than enhanced.

No one can question her star power, and it would be a mistake to doubt her clear commitment to many causes dear to the hearts of leftists. But far too often, she has been unwilling to endorse their advocates running solid campaigns for Congress, when just a few public words of support might have made a real difference.

Ocasio-Cortez’s approach to endorsements has avoided offending the Democratic lawmakers she works with in the House. But for progressives, it has begun to raise questions about whether her ambitions for higher office aren’t outweighing her interest in helping up-and-coming progressives to climb the same ladder that she ascended in 2018.

Such critical questions are revolving around whether she has become too eager to have good relations with the Democratic Party establishment. She conveyed eagerness in late June by pledging to support Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) for party leader next year.

Credit where due: Ocasio-Cortez has supported progressive candidates who went on to win congressional primaries this year in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Montana and California. And it is understandable that officeholders must be selective in their endorsements. But she is overdoing it. Her refusal to back many progressives in potentially tight races against mainstream Democrats has become conspicuous. Several times, her unwillingness to support a progressive candidate with an uphill climb has come before activists pushed that candidate over the top.

All of this could come back to haunt her if, as expected, she opts to run for higher office in 2028. Whether aiming for the Senate or the White House, she will need fervent support from a base that trusts her. She is now in danger of seeing such trust erode.

Norman Solomon is cofounder of RootsAction and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His latest book is “The Blue Road to Trump Hell: How Corporate Democrats Paved the Way for Autocracy.“

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Bernie Sanders

Hakeem Jeffries

Joe Crowley

Ro Khanna

Ronald Reagan

Zohran Mamdani

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