He could ultimately be just fine with AOC.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is seasoned enough in political survival that he could wind up supporting socialist “Squad” standout Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez if she launches a presidential bid, particularly after far-left candidates gained fresh momentum in Tuesday’s primaries, insiders said.
Such a move would come despite Schumer’s long record as a pragmatic lawmaker — including his 2007 book focused on rebuilding a middle-class majority.
“Schumer’s a smart enough person where if it is that time [for an AOC White House run], he would probably be one of her biggest champions,” a veteran New York Democratic strategist said.
Schumer, 75, has aligned himself with local progressives before and has also outlasted onetime rival Hillary Clinton, whom he endorsed for president in 2013 while declaring that 2016 would be “Hillary’s time.”
“Run, Hillary, run!” he said at the time, encouraging the former first lady to enter the race.
Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens, Bronx), 36, has since eased away from challenging sitting House Democrats. In 2024, she also began contributing $260,000 a year in dues to the party’s campaign fundraising operation — a gesture viewed as recognition of the Democratic establishment’s influence.
Still, the socialist firebrand and her allies are building strength as they try to push the Democratic Party’s far-left base from the margins toward the mainstream — highlighted by Tuesday’s primary wins for three far-left House contenders endorsed by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“She went from being an outsider to being an insider,” said the operative.
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Kamala Harris invited Ocasio-Cortez to speak at the Democratic National Convention in 2024, where AOC vouched that the party’s presidential nominee was “working tirelessly to secure a cease-fire in Gaza.”
The move brought a rebuke last week from Democratic Socialist of America honcho Kareem Elrafai in The Nation, who demanded Ocasio-Cortez apologize for telling a “lie” to the public by claiming the “very people perpetrating a genocide were actually ‘working tirelessly’ to stop it.”
One establishment Democratic aide insisted that after years of conversations, AOC has “real respect for, and perhaps even, an affinity for Schumer.”
That could be the basis of an unexpected accommodation.
“He is willing to listen to her, and that matters to her,” the aide said.
AOC was coy this week when asked about running for Senate, telling a Fox News reporter “I’m not going to be breaking any news here.”
After serving 45 years in Congress – including the last 27 years in the Senate – Schumer’s clout and time on Capitol Hill is running out, predicted a Republican operative working midterm campaigns nationwide.
“If Schumer somehow survives Democrats’ 2026 socialist takeover, AOC’s 2028 challenge will finish the job and send him into retirement,” the source predicted.
Schumer declined to address his political future or a potential Ocasio-Cortez presidential run, but he insisted Dems would rally together to take back Capitol Hill and the White House.
“We need to look at the entire country,” he said in a statement to The Post.
“We have centrists making real gains in New Jersey, Iowa, and Virginia, and progressive energy here in New York City. At the end of the day, my sole focus is one thing: taking back the Senate and reversing the damage Donald Trump has done to the United States.”
