WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance predicted Tuesday that Bronx and Queens Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2028, dismissing some of the other rumored contenders as overrated.
“I think it’s got to be AOC. I know that’s probably conventional wisdom,” Vance told “The Michael Knowles Show” in an interview promoting his new book “Communion.”
Ocasio-Cortez responded by telling reporters of Vance, “I hope he is” the nominee on the Republican side.
The democratic socialist darling has frequently been tipped to run for either the White House or Senate two years from now. Last year, she gloated over a presidential poll that had her besting Vance in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup.
The 36-year-old currently ranks forth in the RealClearPolitics primary polling aggregate with 11% support, behind former Vice President Kamala Harris (27%), California Gov. Gavin Newsom (17%), and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg at (13%)%.
Later in the interview, Vance dismissed host Michael Knowles’ suggestion that Newsom was the favorite to be the Democratic standard-bearer.
“No, no, I don’t buy that. I think he hurt himself with his comment to an audience full of black Americans that ‘I’m low IQ, just like you,’” Vance mused. “Sort of bad in a couple of different ways.”
In February, Newsom was holding a conversation with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens about his struggle with dyslexia.
“I’m not trying to impress you. I’m just trying to impress upon you. I’m like you. I’m no better than you, you know, I’m a 960 SAT guy,” Newsom said at the time. “You’ve never seen me read a speech, because I can’t read a speech.”
Newsom’s press team described the firestorm over those comments as “MAGA-manufactured outrage.”
Vance mused that the California governor had “at least two major political gaffes produced in a single sentence” and joked that his own rate of faux pas was “less efficient than that.”
The vice president is considered the heavy favorite for the Republican nomination, should he seek it.
Vance has insisted that he isn’t giving 2028 serious thought until after the midterm elections and that his main focus is helping Republicans hold onto power in Congress.
The veep also stressed that Democrats are currently “so dominated by the crazy people” and warned Republicans to take the threat of the populist left seriously.
“It’s like they can’t figure out the part where they get the economic populism,” he told Knowles, “which actually is very popular, and I think Republicans should be more worried about that.”
