Following rumors that progressive Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would primary New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a spokesperson for the controversial politician said on Sunday that she won’t go ahead with the rumored senate run.
Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for Ocasio-Cortez, told Politico that she is not planning a run – at least for now.
“She is not planning to run for Senate in 2024,” Hitt told the outlet. “She is not planning to primary Gillibrand.”
New York Story
It should come as welcome news for Gillibrand, who was first elected in 2009, she announced in January that she plans to run for re-election. Any Democrat who wins the nomination for a New York Senate run is almost guaranteed to win the seat, despite gains made in the state in the 2022 mid-term elections.
Former Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin came within touching distance of winning the 2022 gubernatorial race in November last year, narrowing the gap and losing to Governor Kathy Hochul by under 400,000 votes. Republican candidates overperformed across the board in New York state, too.
At present, Gillibrand – a moderate – faces no prominent challenger in the primary race and is expected to take the party’s nomination.
The Waiting Game for AOC
After winning the Democratic primary for New York’s 14th congressional district and winning in 2019, Ocasio-Cortez has become the Democratic Party’s most prominent young progressive. Her partisan approach to politics has seen her butt heads with moderates like Senator Joe Manchin on a series of major hot-topic issues, including President Joe Biden’s proposed “Build Back Better” legislation. The New York Democrat has been asked on several occasions to discuss any possible plans to run for the Senate or even for the White House.
In June 2022, Ocasio-Cortez was asked by CNN’s Dana Bash if she was considering campaigning against Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, who also represents New York.
“I know it drives everybody nuts. But the way that I really feel about this, and the way that I really approach my politics and my political career is that I do not look at things and I do not set my course positionally,” Ocasio-Cortez said at the time.
“And I know there’s a lot of people who do not believe that. But I really – I can’t operate the way that I operate and do the things that I do in politics while trying to be aspiring to other things or calculating to other things,” she added.
While AOC might not be running for the U.S. Senate this time around, there is no reason to believe it won’t ever happen. Gillibrand may have been a tough foe for AOC this time, with 14 years of experience – and likely another six years by the time of the next primary.
Gillibrand also has solid progressive credentials and has attracted positive headlines from media outlets ahead of her 2024 re-election bid.
At 56 years old, too, Gillibrand is young in politician years, while Senator Chuck Schumer is 72 years old and will be approaching his eighties by the time he is up for re-election in 2028. If AOC wants to be New York’s newest senator, she may be wise to wait and see if Schumer plans to run again in five years.
And, that may be exactly what she’s doing.
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Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive’s Breaking News Editor. He is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
