‘A girl from the Bronx’: Is there any chance of an AOC presidency?
Image Credit: Dimitri Rodriguez via Wikimedia
Honestly, what would we do without AOC? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating for political worship à la MAGA Republicanism, but the New York congresswoman’s authenticity, ferocity, and sheer intolerance of right-wing nonsense is like oxygen for suffocating progressives. As we march towards 2028, and the inevitable - well, ‘inevitable’ may be too optimistic - circus of a presidential election, rumours about the potential runners and riders for the Democratic nomination are flying. Newsom, Whitmer, and Harris are no doubt the frontrunners, but given the momentum we’ve seen build in AOC’s hometown, this may well be a moment for the downtrodden left.
Born in 1989, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (better known as ‘AOC’) worked her way from waiting tables to leading a worldwide left-wing movement in under a decade. While her 2019 primary opponent used big business and establishment support to scaffold a heartless campaign, Ocasio-Cortez canvassed the Bronx and Queens on foot. The footage of her nomination victory never ceases to hit me right in the gut, in the best possible way.
Unlike Joe Crowley, the incumbent she so deftly unseated seven years ago, AOC actually shows up for her constituents - a startlingly rare phenomenon in politics these days. While the right may latch onto murky statistics to attack her, she’s continued to deliver for her district to this day. AOC proposed 23 pieces of legislation in her first term alone, going on to introduce (and then reintroduce) her Green New Deal, and secure nearly $7 million for 10 community projects serving New York’s 14th District. As her colleagues wrestled for their next committee position, she paved her way to political prominence by actually doing the work.
That being said, we can’t overlook the theatrics that have come to define her career. Ocasio-Cortez is no stranger to political brawls - from the rhetorical decimation of Rep. Yoho at the start of her first term to the oh-so-satisfying dressing-down of Marjorie Taylor Greene last year, her lethal oratory has served her well in the hostile halls of Congress. More recently, her ‘Fighting Oligarchy Tour’ has seen her tag-team with Bernie Sanders to take on the Grifter-In-Chief directly, with her rallies drawing crowds in the tens of thousands.
Between this, her formidable legislative efforts, immensely impressive campaigning, and natural political acumen, it’s no surprise that AOC has long been thought of as a potential president.
Yet, while her credentials seem fiercely strong, we still have to reckon with the prejudice that continues to pervade America’s body politic. It was only last year, after all, that the U.S. elected a literal felon over a qualified, articulate, and principled biracial woman. Anyone who tells you Harris’ identity had nothing to do with her defeat is either lying or naive. This begs the question then, will AOC ever stand a chance in a culture that bristles at the mere prospect of a woman in the West Wing? And that’s not even considering the lingering McCarthy-era hostility directed towards anything even vaguely socialist.
It’s easy to descend into political nihilism given our current circumstances - pundits have always found masochistic pleasure in questioning whether the U.S. will ever be ready for a female president. But let us turn back to AOC’s past. No one believed ‘a girl from the Bronx’ could outmanoeuvre a 10-term Democratic incumbent, and yet she did. No one believed she could succeed in the moderate caucus of Congress, and yet she has. No one believes that she has a shot at the Oval Office, and yet she might.
It would be a mistake to ignore the momentum of people-powered politics, and right now AOC seems to offer something that almost nobody else can - a glimmer of progressive possibility.