U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez throughout a marketing campaign rally on the Bronx Brewery on Might 19, 2024
Photograph courtesy Corey Topie for the Ocasio-Cortez marketing campaign
As metropolis elections strategy, political watchers are fastidiously eyeing Bronx-Queens U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in anticipation of a potential mayoral endorsement. Her backing may very well be a decisive issue for a progressive candidate hoping to achieve floor on the present frontrunner, former Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Ocasio-Cortez has reportedly met with Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander and Meeting Member Zohran Mamdani in current weeks however has not introduced whom she is going to endorse, or whether or not she intends to endorse in any respect. The Bronx Occasions reached out to Ocasio-Cortez’s workplace and has not but heard again.
She shares some connection to the 2 candidates, with Ocasio-Cortez backing Lander’s Comptroller run in 2021, and, like Mamdani, has been affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America social gathering.
The progressive Working Households Celebration might supply some clues. The social gathering, which has supported AOC and different left-leaning candidates, has endorsed Lander, Mamdani, Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and State Sen. Zellnor Myrie however has not but introduced its best choice.
As for these doubtless dominated out, Ocasio-Cortez instructed a CNN reporter that she is not going to endorse Andrew Cuomo, a extra centrist candidate whom she stated represents “the weight of the past” fairly than “new leadership,” based on the CNN reporter’s March 4 publish on X.
She can be unlikely to assist Eric Adams, whom she didn’t endorse in 2021 and with whom she has repeatedly clashed over his 2024 federal bribery and corruption indictment. Ocasio-Cortez repeatedly referred to as for Adams to resign or be eliminated by Gov. Kathy Hochul amid the case, which was in the end dropped in early April.
Having launched her profession in 2018 after being a bartender, Ocasio-Cortez has seen rising political affect — particularly towards the present Trump administration — and her endorsement may maintain sway as many New York Metropolis voters simply start to concentrate to their choices for New York Metropolis mayor, one of many nation’s strongest roles.
Tons of of 1000’s have attended her “Fighting Oligarchy” nationwide tour with Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, which has introduced out huge crowds towards President Trump and advisor Elon Musk, even in conservative states like Utah and Idaho.
She endorsed civil rights lawyer Maya Wiley in early June 2021, solely about two weeks earlier than the first, which Politico referred to as “one of the most consequential individual nods in the race so far.”
Although Wiley in the end completed third, behind former sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia and Eric Adams because the winner, Ocasio-Cortez’s assist acquired a lot hype, and Wiley’s candidacy was considered as a hopeful signal forward for Black girls in political management.
