AOC says she wants to 'change this country' but won't deny 2028 run

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez didn't shut down a future presidential run, but said her ambition is larger than higher office: "My ambition is to change this country."

Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive Democratic congressmember for New York, has been eyed for years as a possible presidential contender. Asked by Democratic strategist David Axelrod at a University of Chicago talk on May 8 whether she would run for either the presidency or a Senate seat, Ocasio-Cortez demurred.

Her ambition is not "positional" or a "title or seat," she said.

"My ambition is way bigger than that. My ambition is to change this country."

Ocasio-Cortez added that presidents and senators "come and go," but policies like single payer healthcare, a living wage and women's and workers' rights are "forever."

"I don't want to make decisions from a place of what's in it for me. I want to make decisions from a place of how are we going to change the country," she said.

Ocasio-Cortez, often referred to by her initials AOC, was elected to Congress in 2018, unseating Joe Crowley, a decade-long fixture of Democratic politics. She has been re-elected three times.

A Harvard Caps Harris poll taken late last month found that 8% of Democratic voters favor Ocasio-Cortez to be the Democratic party's next presidential candidate.

Ocasio-Cortez is part of a group of left-leaning, progressive Democrats in Congress informally called "The Squad" that also includes Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.