(Headline USA) Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has decided against running for Senate in 2024, according to a campaign spokeswoman.
Just one month after Ocasio-Cortez hinted at a possible primary challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., the leftist revealed that she’s “not planning” to seek higher office.
“She is not planning to run for Senate in 2024. She is not planning to primary Gillibrand,” Lauren Hitt, Ocasio-Cortez’s spokesperson, told Politico.
Ocasio-Cortez’s fellow left-wing Democrat lawmakers Jamaal Bowman and Ritchie Torres have also decided to sit out the Senate primary, according to the report.
With the field mostly clear, Gillibrand has managed to rack in some hefty endorsements, including from pro-abortion group EMILYs List and the NAACP.
“She works hard. She’s active in the community. I think she’s doing a good job,” Hazel Dukes, president of the NAACP’s New York chapter, said. “She’s been fighting for women’s rights and against sexual harassment and domestic violence. She’s been strong on education and good on health issues. She’s fought for veterans.”
Manhattan Democratic Party leader Keith Wright also said he’d support Gillibrand’s reelection.
“I’m absolutely backing Gillibrand’s re-election,” he said. “She’s doing a great job. She’s got seniority. She and Chuck Schumer are the equivalent of James Brown — the hardest-working senators in the United States of America.”
Last month, Ocasio-Cortez admitted she was considering seeking “higher office.”
“There’s a world where I’m here for a long time in this seat, in this position,” she told the outlet. “There’s a world where I’m not an elected official anymore. There’s a world where … I may be in higher office.”
Several Democrat strategists predicted that if AOC were to challenge Gillibrand, she would beat the incumbent senator easily.
“She could do it. Oh, my God, could she do it,” said Democrat consultant Ryan Adams. “If she ran for Senate the fundraising that would come in from all around the country would easily make her competitive. And nobody campaigns like her. Everyone would come out. The apparatus that would spring up around her would be unstoppable. People would fly in from other states to volunteer with her.”
