Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been in office for all of seven years and is already becoming one of the fiercest rivals to Vice President JD Vance for the 2028 presidential position.
She has positioned herself in stark contrast to Vance, a potential heir to U.S. President Trump’s administration.
While she regularly spars with Vance on social media, Ocasio-Cortez will be taking a more serious stance by appearing at the Munich Security Conference in Germany later this week.
Highlights
- AOC signals 2028 presidential run with a high-profile speech at the Munich Security Conference, contrasting sharply with GOP rival J.D. Vance.
- She aims to challenge Vance and Trump-era policies, focusing on progressive domestic and informed foreign policy views.
- AOC gains foreign policy insight from experts like Matt Duss and the Center for International Policy to bolster her international stance.
- She strongly condemns corporate influence in politics, aligning with Bernie Sanders and the Democratic socialist wing.
AOC gives a clear signal that she will run for the 2028 presidential election
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This will likely be the 36-year-old congresswoman’s most important overseas trip, where she is anticipated to receive a euphoric reception. She is expected to discuss her foreign policy vision at the annual conference, which will be attended by more than 60 heads of state and government.
Attendees include UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
California Governor Gavin Newsom will also be there, and so will Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whom Ocasio-Cortez is expected to challenge.
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The potential 2028 presidential candidates are expected to challenge Europe’s ruling class, with Democratic and Republican representatives convincing American voters of their policies.
Last year, Vance spoke in Munich and accused Europeans of endangering Western civilization by censoring free speech, not controlling immigration, and having weak defense strategies. The Trump administration has since made several comments on its Western allies.
This year, the administration is set to send Rubio, who has generally been considered the “good cop” in the Trump administration. He came under scrutiny after the U.S. capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and strikes on Venezuelan ships.
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Ocasio-Cortez had a challenging moment in 2018 as a congressional candidate when she was asked about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on PBS, and she said: “I am not the expert at geopolitics on this issue.” As of late, she has been getting advice on global affairs from Matt Duss, an expert who was Bernie Sanders's foreign policy advisor for five years.
She has also been receiving briefings from a Washington-based think tank, the Center for International Policy, which promotes a non-interventionist U.S. foreign policy and human rights.
The Washington Post also reported that Duss’ role in her debut could lead Ocasio-Cortez to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a pro-Palestinian perspective.
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AOC, who holds the perspective that the influence and interests of wealthy people on government are a driver of right-wing populism, is also expected to condemn the influence of corporate interests on international policies hostile to the working class.
Ocasio-Cortez is closely aligned with Bernie Sanders and the democratic socialist wing of the party.
“AOC has made no secret of her interest in running on a national ticket, whether it's for president or vice president,” an anonymous Democratic insider told the Daily Mail.
AOC has positioned herself in stark contrast with Vance
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“She has strong domestic policy credentials, and strong progressive credentials, but if you're going to be on a national ticket and be president or vice president, you have to have some knowledge of foreign affairs.”
They added, “And I think she'll also use it [Munich] to contrast her views with Vance, since he's the most likely Republican nominee, to set up the contrast early, get people thinking about Vance versus AOC.”
A December poll by The Argument and Verasight showed Ocasio-Cortez defeating Vance in a hypothetical 2028 race by 51 percent to 49 percent. She quickly shared the poll on X and wrote, “Bloop!”
Image credits: PollTracker2024/X
Later, she downplayed a survey taken three years before an election, instead saying, “Let the record show... I would stomp him... I would stomp him!”
Ocasio-Cortez heavily criticized Vance after the fatal shootings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by immigration enforcement officers in Minnesota. “That is a fundamental difference between Vice President Vance and I,” she had said at the time. “I do not believe that the American people should be assassinated in the street.”
“The most important thing she’ll do is contrast her views with Vance and Trump,” Professor Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, told the Daily Mail. “There's so many obvious lines - I won’t be annexing Greenland, Canada isn’t going to be our 51st state... what I would be interested in is how much she dwells on the Middle East because that is a continuing source of divisive controversy in the Democratic Party.”
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Sabato also predicted a crowded Democratic primary in 2028. “Everybody and his brother and sister will be running for this nomination,” he said. “A drove of Democrats will run.” Newsom is widely seen as one of the strongest potential candidates.
On the online prediction market Kalshi, Ocasio-Cortez currently ranks as the second favorite for the Democratic nomination, behind Newsom.
However, Sabato warned that early frontrunners often struggle. “The worst thing you can be is the favorite for the presidential nomination three years in advance,” he said. “Almost all of them have not gotten the nomination because they have three years to survive attacks from everybody else. They're the obvious target.”
Age could work in her favor. The Constitution requires presidential candidates to be at least 35 years old. Ocasio-Cortez would be 39 on Election Day in 2028. “The one thing you don't want to be today is too old,” Sabato explained. “We’ve had Biden and Trump, and that's going to be it for people in their late 70s and early 80s for a long, long time.”
Ocasio-Cortez entered Congress as the youngest woman ever elected.