“Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s extraordinarily public social media posts about freezing her eggs are nothing more than hard-boiled politics, critics told The Post.
The 36-year-old socialist lawmaker’s dramatic videos about her fertility treatments appeal to a critical slice of voters — women aged 35-49 – who could hold the key to a 2028 presidential run.
“It is her way to move into the . . . older women, rather than just the young under-34-year-olds,” said Andrew Smith, who runs the Survey Center at the University of New Hampshire.
The 35-49 female demographic is important include those who “are hearing that biological clock ticking more loudly,” he added.
Last week, an overalls-clad AOC laid out the “ingredients” to jab her stomach on her East Elmhurst kitchen counter in one of a series of Instagram videos for her 9.7 million followers.
“Welcome to my cooking show, today we’re making eggs,” she quipped.
“Don’t be weird about this, even though I know all of you will be,” she cautioned, acknowledging she was cracking political norms on her initial video. She stressed the financial toll of saving up for treatments, then said she shopped around and will pay $8,000-$9,000 for treatments.
Conservative critics immediately pounced.
“AOC is freezing her eggs at 36 because she wants to try to ‘relate’ to women when she runs for President in 2028,” wrote conservative activist Laura Loomer on X.
“She knows freezing eggs at 36 when you’ve been engaged for 4 years is a lost cause. So she wants a sob story about infertility when she does decide to run for president,” she scoffed.
The videos kicked off immediate speculation that AOC had split with her longtime beau Riley Roberts, which the socialist lawmaker did not deny.
AOC’s unusual choice to administer shots to herself on camera comes as Pew polling shows IVF is a winning political issue, with 79% of Dems and 63% of Republicans saying access to it is a good thing.
“This is something that her willingness to talk about will endear her to women,” said former CNN political reporter and independent political commentator Chris Cillizza.
“The decision to announce it publicly suggests to me that she can reap the political benefits from it. I’d be surprised at this point if she did not run for president in 2028.”
“There are no coincidences in politics,” he added, noting she went on a Sunday show, where she knew she would be asked about her 2028 intentions, for the first time in almost two years, the morning after breaking the egg news on Instagram.
Fellow Dems dismissed the notion of an ulterior motive, cheering the ‘egg-cellent’ decision.
“I love seeing more people take ownership over their lives to make the decisions that are right for them – whether it’s through egg freezing, IVF, or something else,” Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) told The Post. “Sharing our personal journeys is the first step to normalizing these experiences about fertility and reproductive health and help get better policies to support people.”
The share of childless women increased in every demographic except women ages 45 to 50, according to Census Bureau data. In 2024, 91 million women voted, compared to 83 million men, according to the League of Women Voters – and the largest group of voters was women age 45-64.
AOC already cleans up among young voters, winning 43% of those under 34 according to a UNH poll of 1,500 state residents out last month.
But she gets just 18% of those 35-49, a cohort who turn out to vote in national elections far more than the younger crowd.
Rival Pete Buttigieg, the former secretary of transportation whose late father was a prominent Marxist historian, beats her among the group, getting 24%. Buttigieg gets 27% support among women of all age groups – compared to 16% for AOC.
Buttigieg led that poll with 19% of the vote, followed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom at 15% and Ocasio-Cortez right behind at 14%.
AOC is already polling well in the battlegrounds and routinely rates among the top four Democratic candidates nationally, with a massive grassroots fundraising base and options to seek higher office in 2028. Appealing to the soccer mom/IVF crowd could be her key to the Oval Office, some suggest.
“It could be her time. She’s a real force of nature,” said Ed Rollins, who ran Ronald Reagan’s 1984 campaign. “She’s a smart politician. From the get-go she has always built a political base and expanded that base.”
Even if the purported stunt expands her base, 2024 could be a cautionary tale.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris staked much of her campaign on working to restore Roe v. Wade and ride a female backlash to victory. But she ended up losing ground among every slice of female voters to Donald Trump compared to 2020, other than women over 65.
