US Progressives Launch Campaign for Ocasio-Cortez Application

Utoday, a group of American progressives launched a campaign to encourage Democratic Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run for Presidential elections in 2028, seeking to mobilise one million supporters across the country.

The initiative, called ‘Ready for AOC’, aims to create a national support structure for New York Congressman, one of the main figures of the Democratic Party’s progressive wing.

“AOC is the only candidate able to lead the working class movement to fight oligarchy and transform America,” the group said in its first publication on social networks.

“ We are organizing across the country to build the basic support we need to win in 2028,” the movement added.

The campaign aims to recruit 10,000 local leaders and activists, responsible for developing a network capable of gathering at least one million signatures of citizens committed to supporting a possible presidential candidacy of Ocasio-Cortez.

According to The New York Times, the organization claims to have more than 500 local political and trade union leaders distributed across 35 US states.

The spokesman for the initiative, Ravi Sahai, explained that the goal is to prepare a mobilization structure in advance, even without a decision by the congressman on the possibility of contesting the White House.

“The goal is to build the infrastructure of a basic movement, if you decide to apply, but also to show that there is a movement that supports it, ready to lead to victory if you decide to run for president,” Sahai said to the New York newspaper.

The launch of the campaign takes place less than a week after the mid-term elections of November 3, in which the Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives and Senate, imposing a defeat on President Donald Trump's Republican Party.

The results also reinforced the visibility of candidates supported by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a political organization that supports Ocasio-Cortez.

Among the progressive candidates elected stands Abdul El-Sayed, who won a seat in the Senate by Michigan, although not identified as socialist.

The election performance of these candidates is fueling the internal debate among democrats on the political orientation to be adopted in the President of 2028.

Progressive sectors argue that the party must bet on a more left-wing candidacy as an alternative to a centrist strategy associated with its traditional leaders.

According to the Axios portal, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, also linked to the DSA, recently met with union leaders to discuss support for a possible presidential candidacy close to the unions and the left.

Mamdani, whose election helped to increase the visibility of the American progressive movement, cannot apply for the presidency of the United States for being born in Uganda.

The U.S. Constitution requires presidential candidates to be U.S. citizens of birth, a condition that prevents Mamdani from competing for office.

The ‘Ready for AOC’ initiative thus arises at a time when different sectors of the Democratic Party begin to stand for the election of the presidential candidate of 2028, after the victory in the mid-term elections.