The Democratic Party’s New Leader: AOC?

The Democratic Party is still without a real leader. That is what tends to happen during the early stages of a party being out of power.

Joe Biden, the most recent Democratic president, is mostly off the scene, while Barack Obama, while still very influential, is clearly not planning to lead the party going forward.

Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election, which doesn’t usually mean that person emerges as the party leader. Ken Martin was recently elected DNC chairman, but he’s not quite a prominent public figure.

So what seems likely to happen is, whoever emerges victorious in the 2028 Democratic primary process will emerge as the new leader of the party.

The question is whether that person will be a traditional party leader, or a very nontraditional one who takes over as the leader from the outside.

Who is the Democratic Party Leader? Enter AOC 

Back in late March, the conservative group America’s Rising put out a video, amplified on Fox News, in which various people, whether elected officials on TV or “man on the street” interviewees, were asked who should currently be seen as the leader of the Democratic Party. Most people who were asked struggled to come up with an answer, with a couple of people not answering at all.

Some are specifically asked whether Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) should be considered the party’s leader, but some of the “man on the street” interviewees answer “no!,” while others have no answer at all.

As political agitprop, it’s pretty weak. It’s a pretty normal condition of politics, in the opening months of a presidential administration, for the party out of power not to have a clear answer on who their leader is. Nor does it say a great deal if a bunch of random people on the street don’t have a sophisticated answer about who is going to lead the Democratic Party in the future.

One of those people, however, has an answer: “AOC.”

Will it be AOC? 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), or AOC, is currently in the midst of the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, in which she’s been drawing huge crowds, including in red states, for rallies alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT.)

Articulating an anti-Trump case that’s a bit different from the ones put forward by more mainstream Democrats, the Fighting Oligarchy tour is drawing attention and energy on the anti-Trump side, especially among younger people whose enthusiasm for the Democratic Party flagged during the 2024 cycle.

With Sanders in his 80s and highly unlikely to ever run for president again, AOC is being seen as a possible heir to the left flank of the Democratic Party, and even as a potential 2028 presidential candidate.

And while Sanders has spent his entire career in Congress as an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, Ocasio-Cortez is a Democrat and has been ever since her election to Congress in 2018.

AOC, for her part, has been noncommittal about the idea of running for president.

Resistance to the Resistance 

If Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did run for president, and did emerge as the standard-bearer for the Democratic Party, it would likely look something like Donald Trump’s rise in the GOP in 2015 and 2016: An insurgent, taking over the party that’s out of power, over the strenuous and angry incumbent establishment of the party.

Due to AOC’s reputation for leftism, and her history with the Democratic Socialists of America — a group that, for what it’s worth, has disavowed AOC at various times over the years — she’s not a popular figure among the Democrats’ donor base and established class of consultants and strategists. The James Carvilles of the world, and others who believe that Kamala Harris lost because she went too far left, would likely go on TV nightly to bash her.

When Ocasio-Cortez sought the ranking Democrat spot on the House Oversight Committee, she was defeated by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), a much older man who has cancer, with the backing of the party establishment.

Whether the Democratic Party can be taken over the way the GOP was by Trump, however, is another question entirely.

About the Author: Stephen Silver

Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter