Joe Perticone writes:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has been campaigning furiously in the final stretch of this midterm election cycle, visiting states across the union to boost a range of candidates who hope that the charismatic congresswoman’s considerable name I.D. will help them run up the numbers against their Republican opponents. It’s usually helpful for a party star to campaign with others, especially in this attention economy, and Ocasio-Cortez is being a good team player here. But campaigning hard now also positions her well for a potential presidential bid in 2028.

It’s not unusual for a lawmaker with higher ambitions to travel as much as Ocasio-Cortez has done this year. Arizona’s Sen. Mark Kelly, a widely discussed potential presidential candidate from the other side of the Democratic spectrum, has ventured to twenty-three different states this cycle to promote candidates up and down the ballot. For all the talk of factionalism in the Democratic party, most senior Dems are doing a good job maintaining a big tent approach, and Ocasio-Cortez’s final stop bridged the gap between the Democratic Socialists of America and the centrist New Democrat Coalition.

On Friday evening, Ocasio-Cortez showed up to a crowded auditorium in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District—which, according to nonpartisan ratings, is not in much jeopardy—to boost incumbent Democratic Rep. Eugene Vindman.

“We cannot simply hope that voters will return their ballots or get to the polls,” AOC said. “We gotta bring them there. And that’s why all of us have been knocking doors. It’s why I myself have been touring the country. And this is my last stop on the swing.”

Virginia State Delegate Rozia Henson told me Ocasio-Cortez’s presence would likely juice Vindman’s turnout, while also shoring up the congresswoman’s favorability in the state for a theoretical primary campaign in two years. The DNC has scheduled Virginia to vote sixth in the 2028 Democratic presidential primaries, just before Super Tuesday.

“I think it is important [that AOC is in Virginia], because in my district, I represent Route 1 all the way up to Fort Belvoir. There was some concerns with progressive voters and how they felt with [Vindman],” Henson said. “So to have that additional voice just like AOC here, it helps shorten that narrative relating to his votes [in Congress].”

“I thought that from the perception—her being super progressive, socialist, et cetera, et cetera—and him more on the moderate side, to see that collaboration here today makes a difference,” Henson commented. Acknowledging Virginia’s newfound status as an early presidential primary state, he added, “There might be possibilities of what happens next, but we’ll see when that bridge gets here.”

The fact that Ocasio-Cortez is campaigning in locales home to centrist or moderate voters is a sign of the importance of progressives to the Democratic coalition, said Usamah Andrabi, communications director for Justice Democrats, a leftist organizing group. [Continue reading…]