AOC Campaigns for NY Governor in Red Territory

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is making a move that signals big things are coming for her political future. She will campaign for New York Governor Kathy Hochul deep in red territory, far from the blue bubble of New York City. This trip comes as whispers swirl about AOC's own ambitions for higher office.

She has already said she will pick her next step after the midterms. Many guess she might run for the Democrat nomination for President or challenge Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in 2028. Hochul asked Ocasio-Cortez to hit various events in right-leaning upstate New York while she runs for reelection against Republican Bruce Blakeman.

Her team plans stops in Buffalo, Syracuse, and Ithaca. This lineup marks a shift from the single event AOC attended in Queens on Election Day 2022. The former representative is testing her appeal statewide now. Hochul called this a possible first step toward that goal.

'I think she brings a lot of energy to the process, engages young people in particular,' Hochul told WNYC earlier this week. She admitted she encouraged the visit personally. Hochul also asked Ocasio-Cortez and others to go statewide to build momentum for the next election. The governor wants real energy around the campaign trail. This effort aims to reshape how voters see the race outside city limits.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is heading out of deep blue New York City to campaign for Governor Kathy Hochul in upstate regions that usually vote Republican. Speculation about her own ambitions toward higher office has grown, so this trip marks a possible first step in testing her statewide appeal. Hochul, pictured here with the former representative from Queens and the Bronx, asked AOC to speak at various events across right-leaning areas while she runs for reelection against Republican Bruce Blakeman.

Hochul long had a reputation for being a moderate Democrat but has sidled up to socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez in recent years. While upstate New York tends to vote Republican, there are AOC-friendly areas within those three cities. Both Buffalo and Syracuse have elected Democratic Socialists of America members to citywide and statewide office, while Ithaca is home to Cornell University. Hochul has said she will be with Ocasio-Cortez at some events but has not specified which as of yet.

Blakeman relishes the chance to use AOC as a contrast between himself and Hochul. 'The more she campaigns for Kathy Hochul, the greater chance of my election,' he said Tuesday, per Gothamist. A recent poll shows Hochul trailing Blakeman in upstate by three points. Ocasio-Cortez will decide after this year's midterm election about whether she'll run for president, US Senate or stay in her House district representing the Bronx and Queens.

But there are also two deeply personal factors she says she has to consider: her race and gender. 'Every element of this is something that's within consideration,' she told the New York Times. The 36-year-old Latina lawmaker who is unmarried also told the Times age is part of her calculation as well as plans to start a family. Ocasio-Cortez recently publicly discussed freezing her eggs, a decision she announced in August while filming injecting herself. She split from her longtime fiancé, Riley Roberts, although she has declined to comment publicly on her relationship status.

'I am 36, I'm about to turn 37 years old… and what that means for my life,' she told the Times. 'Pretty candidly, I think about my identity,' Ocasio-Cortez noted. She pointed out that she is not naïve to the fact that they are living under a very regressive administration, and she happens to be a woman, and she happens to be Latina.

Ocasio-Cortez said she often hesitates to talk about race and gender because people can treat such comments as an excuse for why a politician might lose. But if she is seriously considering a presidential campaign, she said she can't simply pretend those questions do not exist. 'It's funny because it's kind of like, everyone else is allowed to talk about it, but I'm not?' Her argument is rooted in the fact that the US has never elected a woman president. Hillary Clinton came closest, winning the popular vote in 2016 but losing the Electoral College to Donald Trump.

Ocasio-Cortez also pointed to how women in politics are covered. She cited a video of herself fixing her hair this summer in the Bronx that drew 25 million views on X and a flood of sexualized comments. That, she said, is the 'most brazen' version of a bias she says she faces 'from the right and from the left.' Race factors in too. The daughter of a Puerto Rican immigrant, Ocasio-Cortez is one of the party's most prominent Latina politicians and its most recognizable progressive voice, and she doesn't dodge questions about whether that hurts her electability. She's also watching history: Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris are the only women to win the Democratic nomination, and both lost.

She absolutely empathizes with the heartbreak people feel around that," she said. "She understands how those women were treated." Yet she hasn't ruled out challenging Schumer, and she rejects the idea she owes anyone deference. But a presidential bid is binary for her: "If I were to run in this cycle, and not win, I would be done." The numbers also show just how complicated Ocasio-Cortez's national political picture could be. The data underscores the challenge. In a recent New York Times/Siena poll, fewer than 1 percent of Republicans viewed her favorably, versus 75 percent unfavorably. Among likely voters overall, just 30 percent viewed her favorably against 41 percent unfavorable, a double-digit deficit. RealClearPolitics' current national Democratic presidential primary polling average has Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at 11 percent, trailing only Kamala Harris with 24 percent, Gavin Newsom with 14 percent and Pete Buttigieg with 13 percent. Is she ready for such a steep climb?