Kirsten Gillibrand recruited Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the congressional softball team. Julian Castro talked with the lawmaker at Netroots. Tulsi Gabbard had a meeting with her before she was even sworn in. And Andrew Yang, another 2020 candidate, is hoping to touch base with her at SXSW — if her team gets back to his.
Ocasio-Cortez, a freshman House member from New York who has been in office just over a month and at age 29 is decades younger than the average lawmaker, is the hottest name in Democratic politics. Her celebrity-status following and ability to drive entire news cycles are setting her up to play a crucial role in the 2020 election. She is already seen as a transformative figure that will be courted by Democratic presidential candidates competing against each other in a crowded field.
“I think the Democratic electorate is going to be split, as we all know, in like 15 different directions. And AOC represents the true base of the party, which are progressives, women, Latinos … and people are just fed up, so it would be wise for Democratic candidates to try to get her support,” Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist who is a senior adviser to Bernie Sanders, told BuzzFeed News. “You could see a battle royale between … Tulsi Gabbard, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren — the left-wing of the party — who would love to stand on stage with AOC.”
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