Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez completed a four-day swing through upstate New York aimed at boosting turnout ahead of the November election, but the tour is also fueling speculation about her political future.<\/p>\n
Ocasio-Cortez, who represents parts of the Bronx and Queens, made stops in Buffalo, Ithaca and Syracuse from Thursday through Sunday. She was warmly received during the tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just about winning elections. It\u2019s about how we win elections,\u201d Ocasio-Cortez said.<\/p>\n
Communications strategist Andrew Kirtzman said the official purpose of the tour was to energize Democratic voters and candidates, while also giving Ocasio-Cortez an opportunity to build relationships in communities where she has not previously had the same level of exposure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, you can\u2019t discount the official reason for her trip, which is to fire up the base for Democratic candidates. On the other hand, she\u2019s now forming relationships she\u2019s never had before in upstate communities,\u201d Kirtzman said.<\/p>\n
Those relationships could be valuable if Ocasio-Cortez pursues a 2028 run for Senate or president, Kirtzman said. Ocasio-Cortez has expressed interest in both positions.<\/p>\n
Ocasio-Cortez has also acknowledged the challenge of seeking statewide office in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do not win the U.S. Senate seat just by winning New York City. No matter how popular you are,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Kirtzman said information gathered during stops like the upstate tour could factor into Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s political calculations for 2028.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question she\u2019s facing for a potential Senate run is not that different from the questions for folks nationally, which is how does she extend her appeal beyond blue corners?\u201d he said<\/p>\n
Kirtzman said Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic Socialist, would need to appeal to moderates without alienating her base if she decides to pursue a Senate seat or the presidency.<\/p>\n
Ocasio-Cortez said her focus is broader than her own political future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the movement is so much bigger than any one person. And I consider myself a part of it. I also think that these decisions aren\u2019t always about punditry or ideology. It\u2019s about putting the country first, and I think, first and foremost, to me, what\u2019s important is ending the reign and the corrupt reign of the Trump administration, as well as any of its acolytes that might emerge from this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez completed a four-day swing through upstate New York aimed at boosting turnout ahead of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[109,106,25,4275,9,24,11,10,49,12,112,87,45797,27,200],"class_list":["post-360652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-national-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-local-politics","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-news","tag-ny-state-of-politics","tag-politics","tag-shannon-ryan","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}