WASHINGTON — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told supporters at a private fundraiser that a victory by Michigan Senate candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed would open the door for progressive candidates nationwide.
“What we do is that we break open the entire political calculus in America — period,” Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said Monday at the event for El-Sayed, according to multiple outlets.
“Because if you can win, if Abdul can win in Michigan, anybody can win anywhere.”
The remarks from the democratic socialist’s favored candidate came as Ocasio-Cortez weighs her own political future in 2028, including whether to seek the presidency, run for the Senate or return to the House.
“We are in a long-term — I’m being very open right now, right? — about our generational project that we have ahead of us,” the Bronx and Queens representative said. “Generational. We are here to break the map.”
“We are up against not just an ascendant and fascist right wing in this country,” she later said. “But we are also up against people with extremely small imaginations about what is possible in America.”
Ocasio-Cortez endorsed El-Sayed during his bruising primary battle against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.). She has also worked to boost staunchly progressive candidates in Democratic primaries while taking care not to alienate the party establishment.
Ocasio-Cortez currently ranks fourth among the leading potential 2028 Democratic presidential contenders, behind former Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, according to the latest RealClearPolitics polling aggregate.
El-Sayed is locked in a close contest with Republican Mike Rogers. The latest RCP aggregate gives El-Sayed a 3.6-percentage-point advantage.
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El-Sayed, meanwhile, reflected on what his Michigan Senate race could mean for the 2028 political landscape.
“What does it say about what America really wants, needs and deserves if our state bucks all of the pundits and all of the pontificators who think that this is not possible?” he said, according to multiple reports. “What does it tell them? It tells them just how big America is and exactly what we want.”
El-Sayed characterized the contest as being “for all the marbles” and predicted that its outcome would produce a major “ripple effect.”
The Michigan Senate contest is being closely watched as a test of whether the far left can broaden its appeal beyond traditional Democratic strongholds. Still, some political commentators note that Democrats are expected to benefit from a blue wave this election cycle and caution against drawing sweeping conclusions from the Nov. 3 results.
“Why would you draw this inference from someone being able to narrowly win Michigan in a year with a D+9 generic ballot?” Matthew Yglesias wrote on X.
Comedian Bill Maher voiced a similar warning over the weekend, arguing that Democrats could misread a potential 2026 midterm victory.
“It’s going to be a classic, historical ass-whooping,” Maher told CNN when discussing the Republican outlook for the midterms. “Now, 2028 is a different story. The Democrats have a crazy animal living in their house called the DSA [Democratic Socialists of America] and they believe truly insane things.”
“This electorate right now is saying, ‘We will get to that issue right now; we have one piece of business in front of us,’” he said, arguing that voters intend to rebuke President Trump. “…[Democrats] will misinterpret this, they will misinterpret the thumping Republicans get as an endorsement for the insanity that a good part of the party wants.”
