Despite ongoing denial from her camp that she is running for president in 2028, liberal congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) continues to fuel speculation that she intends to seek the nation’s highest office.
The latest AOC rumor mill? She’s embarking on a major “tour” outside of her home state.
Axios reported that the congresswoman has quietly started what appears to be a national tour, with high-profile visits this month alone to Philadelphia, Montgomery, and Atlanta to stump for other Democratic candidates and progressive causes.
AOC has also rolled out endorsements in races nationwide and has been showing up in rooms with party power brokers, including the Power Rising Summit in Chicago last month.
However, when recently asked a question about potentially running for higher office in 2028, she declared, “My ambition is to change the country.”
“What’s funny is they assume my ambition is a title or a seat,” AOC said.
“My ambition is to change this country. Presidents come and go. Senate, House seats, elected officials come and go.
“But single-payer healthcare is forever,” she added, in reference to the kind of national healthcare platform she has long supported over the private system entrenched in the US.
AOC then highlighted of her other signature policy positions as if it were a campaign stop, saying: “A living wage is forever, workers’ rights are forever, women’s rights, all of that, and so anyways … to a finer point to your question is that when you aren’t attached, when you haven’t been like fantasizing about being this or that since the time you were seven years old, it is tremendously liberating.”
“My ambition is to change this country”
～Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez#AOC #AOC2028 pic.twitter.com/snYxWt69jU
— Dean Holmes (@DeanH2014) May 27, 2026
The numbers could be on AOC’s side early on.
She surged to first place in the latest 2028 Democratic presidential primary poll by AtlasIntel earlier this month, the first poll to show her leading her potential rivals.
A Harvard CAPS/Harris poll taken in April showed support among Democratic voters for former vice-president Kamala Harris at 24%; California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, at 12%; and ex-transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg and AOC each at 9%.
However, AOC has continued to downplay any 2028 speculation of higher office saying, “I get to wake up every day and say, ‘How am I going to meet the moment?’
“And conditions change radically all the time. So I make my response less to an attachment to some positional title or position and working backwards from there.”
She added: “I make decisions by waking up in the morning, looking out the window and observing the conditions of this country. And saying what move or what decision can I make today that is going to get us closer to that future, stronger, faster, better than yesterday.”