Four years after her election, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez remains a rare specimen: a big-name Democrat under the age of 60.
With a long career ahead of her, Ocasio-Cortez has fielded questions about a possible run for president.
Former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, currently the U.S. climate envoy, believes in the possibility of a White House run by either Ocasio-Cortez or someone identical. An unnamed official told GQ that Ocasio-Cortez looks “destined to inherit the leadership of the movement.”
“In America, anybody can grow up to be president,” Kerry told GQ. “I do believe that.”
The cheerleaders for Ocasio-Cortez have received pushback from an unlikely source: Ocasio-Cortez herself.
Ocasio-Cortez spoke about “sometimes believing” she could never win the White House because of sexism… particularly sexism against Latina women.
“I admit to sometimes believing that I live in a country that would never let that happen,” Ocasio-Cortez told the men’s fashion magazine. “Deeply and unconsciously, as well as consciously, so many people in this country hate women. And they hate women of color.”
According to the magazine, Ocasio-Cortez almost cried thinking about how oppressed she was and made the remark with “tears pooled in the corners of her eyes.”
“I hold two contradictory things [in mind] at the same time. One is just the relentless belief that anything is possible,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “But at the same time… misogyny transcends political ideology: left, right, center. This grip of patriarchy affects all of us, not just women; men, as I mentioned before, but also, ideologically, there’s an extraordinary lack of self-awareness in so many places. And so those are two very conflicting things.”
Her defenders went on Twitter to accuse the critics of sexism.
Take a look —
Why do you feel so threatened by a strong woman?
— Bradley (@DJBBradley) September 7, 2022
In the interview, Ocasio-Cortez addressed not only her future aspirations, but also her upcoming marriage and the aftermath of Dobbs. She focused on the future, an overarching theme of the interview.
“Sometimes little girls will say, ‘Oh, I want you to be president,’ or things like that,” Ocasio-Cortez said, when asked whether she could ever occupy the White House. “I never want to tell a little girl what she can’t do. And I don’t want to tell young people what is not possible. I’ve never been in the business of doing that.”
The congresswoman also acknowledged that she faces limitations within her own control.
“Could Obama have gotten elected without the kind of financial support that he had?” she asked. “I don’t know.
Ocasio-Cortez also remained unsure as to whether she even wanted to be president.
“It’s tough, it’s really tough,” she said, of the presidents’ difficulties with lawmaking. ““I try to think about how I can be most effective and, honestly, to this point, I have not come up with an alternative that I have found more effective than what I’m doing at the present moment.”
Ocasio-Cortez concluded, “Realistically, I can’t even tell you if I’m going to be alive in September, and that weighs very heavily on me… But this is something that I routinely revisit.”
The Horn editorial team