AOC roster WILL NOT run for Senate in 2024: Democrat Firebrand not in New York race to try to unseat Kristen Gillibrand
- AOC’s office said: ‘She has no intention of running for Senate in 2024. She has no intention of becoming Gillibrand primary’
- New York Democrats say they are more focused on taking back the four seats they lost to Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections than on winning one of their own seats
- Last month, AOC did not rule out looking for a “higher position,” including Gillibrand’s seat
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand breathed a sigh of relief over the weekend when Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced she would not contest her 2024 Senate seat from the left.
Ocasio’s spokesperson Lauren Hitt first told Politico, “She has no plans to run for Senate in 2024. She has no plans to run for Gillibrand primary.”
It was long thought that the 33-year-old firebrand progressive would one day fish for higher office. She has the name recognition and liberal bonafides to launch a serious nationwide campaign in blue New York. Ocasio-Cortez also has the resources — $5 million on hand compared to the senator’s $6 million.
But Democrats in New York say they are more focused on taking back the four seats they lost to the Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections than on winning one of their own.
“I think it’s divisive. And unless you think you can win, it’s unnecessarily divisive,” Jay Jacobs, chairman of the New York Democratic Party, told Politico. “It consumes resources that we need to conserve for more coordinated work and the rest.”
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand breathed a sigh of relief over the weekend when Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced she would not contest her 2024 Senate seat from the left
Fifty-six-year-old Democrat Gillibrand has told backers she believes former governor Andrew Cuomo could challenge her, the Daily Beast reported earlier this year. Cuomo resigned from the governorship in disgrace after multiple allegations that he sexually harassed women.
Other potential progressive challengers such as former Rep. Mondaire Jones, Reps. Ritchie Torres and Jamaal Bowman have now all said they will not run for Senate in 2024.
Some on the left have voiced complaints about Gillibrand’s connections to Wall Street, but the senator has always been at the center of women’s issues such as sexual assault legislation and abortion rights.
It’s not yet clear who will challenge Gillibrand from the Republican side, but former Rep. Lee Zeldin hasn’t ruled out a run after a failed bid for governor last year.
Saying she has no plans to challenge Gillibrand doesn’t prevent AOC from doing so — it was only last month that she told Politico she wouldn’t rule out seeking a higher position, including a challenge to the senator.
“Don’t ask me that question… print that one,” she said when pressed for a possible Senate challenge.
“There’s a world where I sit here in this chair for a long time, in this position,” she said. “There is a world in which I am no longer an elected official. There’s a world where… I might be in a higher position.”
Gillibrand has held a seat in the New York Senate since 2009
But this weekend’s announcement points to signs of a deal between Ocasio-Cortez and Gillibrand. Gillibrand said in January that the pair had a “delicious lunch” in the Senate dining room with the AOC chief of staff.
Gillibrand, who announced her re-election campaign in January, is serving her second full term in the Senate after being appointed by former Governor Dave Patterson to fill the vacancy left by Hillary Clinton in 2009.
Gillibrand won re-election over Republican Chele Farley in 2018 by a margin of nearly two to one.
A Siena College poll in March found 43 percent of registered voters said they would vote to re-elect Gillibrand, including 62 percent of Democrats.