OPINION:
We know the 2028 presidential election seems like a million years from now, but it’s less than 1,300 days away. OK, that is a long time, but here’s the thing: Whether you like it or not, the race has already begun.
The Republican Party has a deep bench led by Vice President J.D. Vance, but the other side is hurting. The Democrats painted themselves into a dark corner last year with Vice President Kamala Harris picking uber-liberal Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, as her running mate. Both may try to run in 2028; each will get beaten like a redheaded stepchild.
Sure, there’s Gretchen Whitmer, the two-term governor of Michigan — a swing state that Mr. Trump won by just 80,103 votes out of 5.7 million cast — but again, she seems more like a veep than a POTUS. California Gov. Gavin Newsom will surely run, but he carries heavy baggage. The rest of the wannabes are backbench minor leaguers.
One person out there who fits the bill is young, sharp, idealistic, savvy on social media, and able to draw voters to the polls and raise absurd amounts of money: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
When AOC came onto the scene, the old guard in the Republican Party wet their Depends. They saw her as a godsend. Between gulps off their tanks of oxygen, they said, let’s make her the face of the Democratic Party. And so they did.
That didn’t work out so well. The former bartender from the Bronx is now drawing massive crowds as part of a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour with the avuncular Sen. Bernard Sanders. She has a gold-standard operation that raised nearly $10 million in the first quarter of the year. She is tenacious, having survived a reelection challenge where Republicans threw millions of dollars to her opponent. She has now reached the age set in the Constitution, 35, to run for the highest office in the land.
There was a time in America when young people couldn’t be bothered to vote, but that’s so 20th century. Since 2008, winning Democratic candidates have pulled at least 60% support from young voters, who have turned out in droves. Yes, they didn’t much like Ms. Harris, but after four more years of Mr. Trump, the young could return to the fold.
“So many of us know what it feels like for life to be one bad day, one bad piece of news, one major setback from everything feeling like it’s going to fall apart. And we don’t have to live like this anymore, Utah!” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez told a crowd of 20,000 last week. “We can make a new world, a better country where we can fight for the dignity of all people.”
Mr. Sanders, who was screwed out of the Democratic nomination in 2016 when party leaders skewed the process to nominate Hillary Clinton, is handing off his formidable machine to AOC. “I want to say a word about Alexandria,” the liberal from Vermont said at another rally, “and why what she’s doing is so important.”
Before he could finish, someone yelled, “Future president!” The crowd erupted in cheers.
AOC has battled ancient battle-ax Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Days after her election, she participated in a climate change protest sit-in in Mrs. Pelosi’s office. She has also been vocal about banning federal lawmakers from trading on the stock market. Mrs. Pelosi is worth more than $200 million, thanks to her insider trading.
Sure, she is hard left, but the days when candidates had to tack to the middle after the primaries seem long gone. Mr. Trump didn’t, and he won. President Biden also didn’t bother seeking the middle. He made clear that he would be as left-wing as they come, and he was. Opening the border puts you about as far left as you can go.
Democratic Party elders will bristle as we near the selection of candidates, but with AOC’s social media following, she might well be positioned to work around them. She is media savvy, young, vibrant and so different from the last pair of dinosaur presidents, who drooled and stumbled their way through office.
No one is saying she is waltzing into the nomination, but really, who else do the Democrats have? They might finally listen to their most ardent supporters and put up a candidate they really want to see in office.
If they do, Republicans could have a hard time coming up with someone who can go head-to-head with the bartender from the Bronx.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.