WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that he expects Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of the Bronx and Queens to become the Democratic Party’s 2028 presidential nominee, while brushing aside several other names being floated as overhyped.
“I think it’s got to be AOC. I know that’s probably conventional wisdom,” Vance said during an appearance on “The Michael Knowles Show,” where he was promoting his new book, “Communion.”
Asked about Vance’s remarks, Ocasio-Cortez told reporters of the vice president, “I hope he is” the Republican nominee.
The democratic socialist star has long been mentioned as a potential contender for either the presidency or a Senate seat in the coming cycle. Last year, she celebrated a presidential survey showing her defeating Vance in a hypothetical one-on-one matchup.
Ocasio-Cortez, 36, currently sits fourth in the RealClearPolitics average of Democratic primary polling with 11% support, trailing former Vice President Kamala Harris at 27%, California Gov. Gavin Newsom at 17%, and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg at 13%.
Later in the conversation, Vance rejected host Michael Knowles’ suggestion that Newsom should be viewed as the front-runner to carry the Democratic banner.
“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 said. “Sort of bad in a couple of different ways.”
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Newsom made the remark in February while speaking with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens about his experience living 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.”
