Ready for AOC Launches Campaign to Encourage 2028 Presidential Run

The organization says it wants to recruit 10,000 community leaders nationwide and collect at least 1 million signatures from voters pledging support for an Ocasio-Cortez presidential campaign. Volunteers would also talk with voters, make calls and canvass. The group said it has already signed up more than 500 local political leaders and labor organizers in 35 states.

“The goal is to build the infrastructure of a grassroots movement in the case that she decides to run,” spokesperson Ravi Sahai told The New York Times, adding that organizers also want to show Ocasio-Cortez “there is a movement behind you ready to power you to victory.” At house meetings, the group has brought together gatherings of 10 to 20 friends and neighbors. Ocasio-Cortez has said she will consider a presidential or Senate run after the midterm elections, while leaving open whether she will seek another office at all.

Ready for AOC presents the effort as a response to progressive gains in the recent midterms and a demand for a more ambitious Democratic agenda. Its website calls for a candidate who will represent working-class interests and resist pressure from wealthy donors, and cites policies including universal health care and a wealth tax on billionaires. Ocasio-Cortez campaigned for former Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon, who lost by less than two percentage points despite being vastly outspent, and for Senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan and Troy Jackson of Maine, both of whom made Medicare for All central to their campaigns.

The group is not the only one urging a progressive lawmaker to consider a presidential bid: allies of Rep. Ro Khanna have formed a committee to encourage him to run. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker are also viewed as potential contenders. In a hypothetical 2028 matchup poll conducted last December by The Argument/Verasight, Ocasio-Cortez led Vice President JD Vance 51% to 49%.