The decisive primary sweep by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s left-wing comrades gave Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez such an ego boost that Democratic insiders predict it could spur a White House bid in 2028.
The “Squad’s” queen bee may ditch her long-anticipated plot to unseat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for bigger game after three radical Mamdani-backed insurgents running for House seats on Tuesday defeated old-guard Dems, pushing the party even further left, the insiders said.
“New York’s clean sweep was a political earthquake that shows voters generally want to shake up the system,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
“Whatever percent chance [Ocasio-Cortez] put on running for president a week ago, it should be a higher percent chance now – absolutely. It could have gone from 5% to 20%,” added Green, whose political action committee has previously helped finance campaigns for Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and other lefties.
A top establishment Dem believes Ocasio-Cortez will run for president.
“She’s never itched to be a senator, one of 100, because you don’t become a leader — that takes years and a deep record of legislating,” said the aide. “Plus, who wants to be junior senator [in New York] to Kirsten Gillibrand?”
The 36-year-old celebrity socialist already had “great potential” to seek higher office – but “even more so” after Mamdani’s radical allies Darializa Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez and Brad Lander won their primaries, insisted a longtime New York Democratic operative.
“Every light on the dashboard is flashing [that] people want generational change,” said the operative.
“Everyone’s freaking out,” said a longtime party fundraiser, who chided elected Dems for for “looking stupid” by defending scandal-scarred Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner in a bid to retain his viability.
Ocasio-Cortez declined to address her political ambitions directly to reporters, but said the far-left’s success in the midterm primaries will make it easier for someone like two-time loser and socialist firebrand Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) or “other” like-minded “progressives” to win the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination.
“I think there will always be a place — and a winning place — for a candidate that fights for guaranteed health care for every American, raising wages, and taking on a lot of the corporate corruption that’s driving up prices,” she told The Post Thursday.
Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America’s battle with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries over NYC-based House seats — while noteworthy — also pales in comparison to the larger national fight between Schumer and Sanders, pundits said.
Although establishment Dems comprise a vast majority of the 47 seats in the Senate Democratic caucus, Sanders and his comrades are making key progress cutting into Schumer’s power, they added.
In Maine, Democratic primary voters on June 9 chose Sanders-backed Platner, 41, over Gov. Janet Mills, 78, one of Schumer’s top recruits.
In Michigan, Sanders’ ally Abdul El-Sayed is giving establishment Democrats anxiety heading into the Aug. 4 primary as he leads in the polls over Schumer-backed Rep. Haley Stevens.
And, in Minnesota, Sanders-backed Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan is polling ahead of Schumer-backed Rep. Angie Craig in multiple polls.
“New York is just the latest flashpoint in Democrats’ socialist takeover,” said Bernadette Breslin, national press secretary for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
“As the Sanders-Mamdani slate topples the Schumer-Jeffries machine, Bernie-backed radicals like Graham Platner, Abdul El-Sayed, and Peggy Flanagan stand ready to inflict crippling tax hikes on voters across the Senate map,” warned Breslin.
Sanders did not return messages.
Schumer declined to address his political future, but he insisted this week that Dems — from centrists to socialists — would rally together to take back Capitol Hill and the White House.
But Alyssa Brouillet, communications director for Michigan Republican Senate candidate and former Rep. Mike Rogers, said there’s “no longer” a “socialist wing of the Democratic party; it is the Democratic party – and voters are waking up.
“Working families want less crazy and more common sense,” she said.
