AOC built her own political machine. Now she’s deciding her next move.

Ear­li­er this year, Rep. Alexan­dria Oca­sio-Cortez received an unex­pect­ed call — from a for­mer col­league who had once crit­i­cized her brand of left-wing pol­i­tics. The New York Demo­c­rat, now one of the most influ­en­tial fig­ures in her par­ty, didn’t hes­i­tate to help. She sent out a fundrais­ing email call­ing cen­trist Abi­gail Span­berg­er “a brawler for the work­ing class,” sig­nal­ing a sur­pris­ing alliance between two Democ­rats who had once rep­re­sent­ed oppo­site ends of the par­ty.

That sin­gle ges­ture cap­tured how far Oca­sio-Cortez — the one­time out­sider mocked by Nan­cy Pelosi as a “social media phe­nom­e­non” — has come in just sev­en years. Once seen as a threat by her own par­ty, she has evolved into a pow­er bro­ker whose endorse­ment is now sought by both pro­gres­sives and mod­er­ates alike. Her fin­ger­prints are on races from New York to Vir­ginia, and her pres­ence has become a defin­ing force in Demo­c­ra­t­ic pol­i­tics.

From Outsider to Insider Power Player

On elec­tion night in Novem­ber, Oca­sio-Cortez was in Brook­lyn cel­e­brat­ing anoth­er win: the elec­tion of Zohran Mam­dani, a fel­low demo­c­ra­t­ic social­ist, as New York’s new may­or. She beamed as she hugged him amid cheers and cam­eras. “The Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty can­not last much longer by deny­ing the future,” she told CNN that night — a clear warn­ing to estab­lish­ment Democ­rats.

At 36, Oca­sio-Cortez remains polar­iz­ing on the nation­al stage, with more Amer­i­cans view­ing her unfa­vor­ably than favor­ably, accord­ing to a Wash­ing­ton Post–Ipsos poll. Yet with­in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty, her stature has grown immense­ly. Her mas­sive fundrais­ing oper­a­tion rivals any­one in Con­gress, she com­mands a loy­al online fol­low­ing, and even once-skep­ti­cal estab­lish­ment fig­ures now view her as a uni­fy­ing voice dur­ing a time of par­ty upheaval fol­low­ing anoth­er Trump vic­to­ry.

AOC’s Crossroads: Senate or White House?

Now, Oca­sio-Cortez faces the biggest deci­sion of her polit­i­cal career. Accord­ing to mul­ti­ple sources famil­iar with her think­ing, she is seri­ous­ly con­sid­er­ing a Sen­ate run or a 2028 pres­i­den­tial bid. Either path would be his­toric — the first could pit her against Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Chuck Schumer, while the sec­ond would make her one of the youngest major pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates in U.S. his­to­ry.

“I know I’m being asked about New York — that is years from now,” she recent­ly told reporters, brush­ing off spec­u­la­tion. But those close to her say the con­gress­woman feels an oblig­a­tion to ensure the pop­ulist, pro­gres­sive move­ment she helped build con­tin­ues to have a voice in nation­al pol­i­tics. “If she runs,” one con­fi­dant said, “she wants to win — not just make a point.”

From Bartender to Political Architect

When Oca­sio-Cortez launched her first cam­paign in 2017, some advis­ers sug­gest­ed she play down her past as a bar­tender. She refused. “I want to rep­re­sent the bar­tenders and wait­ress­es of this dis­trict,” she said. That authen­tic­i­ty res­onat­ed with vot­ers in the Bronx and Queens, pro­pelling her to a stun­ning 2018 pri­ma­ry vic­to­ry over long­time incum­bent Joseph Crow­ley.

Her ear­ly days in Con­gress were tur­bu­lent. Oca­sio-Cortez clashed with par­ty lead­er­ship, par­tic­i­pat­ed in a cli­mate protest in Pelosi’s office, and was derid­ed as naïve. Pelosi dis­missed her Green New Deal as a “Green Dream.” Yet the young con­gress­woman weath­ered the crit­i­cism, learn­ing to nav­i­gate Washington’s pow­er struc­tures with­out los­ing her base.

Over time, she refined her approach — less con­fronta­tion, more influ­ence. By 2021, she had built bridges with main­stream Democ­rats like Jamie Raskin and Deb­bie Din­gell, earn­ing respect for her pol­i­cy depth and work eth­ic. Her alliance with the Biden admin­is­tra­tion and lat­er with Vice Pres­i­dent Kamala Har­ris fur­ther demon­strat­ed her shift from out­sider fire­brand to coali­tion-builder.

Navigating Party Tensions

Still, Ocasio-Cortez’s rela­tion­ship with her par­ty remains com­plex. She began pay­ing dues to the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Con­gres­sion­al Cam­paign Com­mit­tee only in 2024 and lost her bid to chair the Over­sight Com­mit­tee after Trump’s reelec­tion. Her calls to impeach Trump for his strike on Iran’s nuclear facil­i­ties also drew push­back from Democ­rats eager to avoid fur­ther polar­iza­tion.

Crit­ics on the left accuse her of becom­ing too estab­lish­ment. The Demo­c­ra­t­ic Social­ists of Amer­i­ca even with­drew their endorse­ment in 2024, cit­ing her mod­er­ate stance on Israel. Yet cen­trists con­tin­ue to call her too rad­i­cal, warn­ing that her pro­gres­sive poli­cies could alien­ate swing vot­ers. “She’s gone left on every­thing,” said Lanae Erick­son of the cen­trist think tank Third Way. “I don’t think she could win a gen­er­al elec­tion.”

Oca­sio-Cortez her­self acknowl­edges the ten­sion. “I have a weird rela­tion­ship with Democ­rats,” she admit­ted ear­li­er this year. “I’m a dis­senter, but I also know this par­ty is a coali­tion — and if we want change, we have to shift that coali­tion from with­in.”

A Partnership with Sanders — and a New Generation Rising

Her clos­est ally remains Sen. Bernie Sanders, the man whose 2016 cam­paign first inspired her polit­i­cal awak­en­ing. The two have devel­oped a bond rarely seen in Wash­ing­ton — part­ners in ide­ol­o­gy and strat­e­gy. Sanders has invit­ed Oca­sio-Cortez to join him on his “Oli­garchy Tour,” where they call for high­er tax­es on the rich and expand­ed social pro­grams. Many of his for­mer staffers now work for her.

Still, Sanders rejects the notion that she’s his “heir appar­ent.” “She’s blaz­ing her own path,” one asso­ciate said. And indeed, she has — advis­ing new pro­gres­sive lead­ers like Zohran Mam­dani, cam­paign­ing for can­di­dates nation­wide, and defin­ing a new brand of prag­mat­ic pop­ulism.

The Road Ahead

Whether Oca­sio-Cortez aims for the Sen­ate, the pres­i­den­cy, or con­tin­ues to wield influ­ence from the House, one thing is cer­tain: she’s no longer the scrap­py under­dog dis­missed as a Twit­ter celebri­ty. With near­ly 10 mil­lion Insta­gram fol­low­ers, a $20 mil­lion war chest, and a polit­i­cal move­ment built in her image, she stands at the cen­ter of America’s pro­gres­sive future.

Repub­li­cans, for their part, are already sharp­en­ing their attacks. Vice Pres­i­dent J.D. Vance called the idea of her pres­i­den­cy “the stuff of night­mares.” Trump him­self recent­ly lashed out after she float­ed impeach­ment — prompt­ing her trade­mark Bronx-born clap­back:

“I’m a Bronx girl,” she wrote. “You should know we can eat Queens boys for break­fast.”

AOC may be weigh­ing her next move, but one thing’s clear — what­ev­er she choos­es, she won’t be under­es­ti­mat­ed again.