FEC filings show Ocasio-Cortez brought in more than $37 million
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spent her first years in Congress challenging fellow Democrats and refusing to pay dues to the House Democrats’ campaign arm. She has not supported a challenger to a House incumbent since a 2024 Democratic Steering and Policy Committee exchange, and she now contributes to the party committee that boosts the campaigns of vulnerable lawmakers, including those who in the past criticized her positions. Federal Election Commission filings show she has brought in more than $37 million ahead of the November midterms, making her a top Democratic fundraiser.
The stakes extend beyond November. Ocasio-Cortez says she is considering a 2028 presidential run, while The Wall Street Journal reports that she is weighing a challenge to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for his New York seat. The Journal reports that broadening her coalition could put at risk support from voters on the political left who back her and whom she would need for a bid for the Senate or White House. Some Democratic Socialists of America members have criticized her support for party leaders, even as she is up for reelection in November in a New York City district she won by close to 40 percentage points two years ago.
Fundraising and party strategy
Eight years ago, days after Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest woman elected to Congress, the New York City bartender and Democratic socialist stood in Washington praising hundreds of climate activists staging a sit-in at Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s office. “I just want to let you all know how proud I am of each and every single one of you,” Ocasio-Cortez told protesters. She echoed demands that House Democrats move further to the left on climate policy, a high-profile challenge to Pelosi, a fellow Democrat and the then-House Democratic leader. In the eight years since, Ocasio-Cortez has shifted her political tactics, according to the Journal. It reported that she has tempered her combative style, worked more closely with party leaders and distanced herself from some policy positions advanced by other Democratic socialists, including abolishing prisons and police. The national DSA platform calls for abolishing police, prisons and the Senate; defunding the Defense Department; granting amnesty to immigrants in the U.S. illegally; and public ownership of major corporations and essential industries — positions Ocasio-Cortez has said she does not support.
Ocasio-Cortez was 28 when she won the 2018 Democratic primary, beating former Rep. Joe Crowley, a 10-term incumbent and one of Pelosi’s top lieutenants. At 29, she won her first race for Congress and joined progressive allies on Capitol Hill — Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan — a group that became known as the “Squad.” Ocasio-Cortez and her allies worked to pull the Democratic caucus leftward. She refused to pay her dues to the House Democrats’ campaign arm and supported like-minded progressives in races to unseat Democratic incumbents. In 2024, she backed President Biden and later Vice President Kamala Harris in their presidential bids, which put her at odds with some people on the political left who thought she should have been more critical of the administration’s response to Israel’s actions in Gaza.
After the 2024 election, Ocasio-Cortez was questioned by members of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, including criticism from Rep. Henry Cuellar, a centrist Democrat from Texas whom she had tried twice to oust. Cuellar told her that a member of Democratic leadership should not campaign against fellow party members, according to people familiar with the exchange. Ocasio-Cortez wanted the top Democratic seat on the House Oversight Committee and, according to the people familiar with the exchange, said she would stop campaigning against colleagues. She did not receive the position, in part because Pelosi had built support for an opponent, the people said. That same day, she called Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington, head of the House Democrats’ campaign arm, and promised to contribute $280,000, more than her recommended dues, according to people familiar with the matter. She has not supported a challenger to a House incumbent since.
The reversal has made her one of the party’s biggest money raisers. Federal Election Commission filings show she has so far brought in more than $37 million ahead of the midterm election, making her a top Democratic fundraiser. She now contributes to the party committee that boosts campaigns of vulnerable lawmakers, including those who in the past criticized her positions. Even Pelosi, who is ending her last term in office, has defended Ocasio-Cortez’s work in the House. Asked at a Politico event this summer about Ocasio-Cortez’s tenure, she denied any initial tensions and described the congresswoman as “a joy to work with.” Drew Hammill, a former top aide to Pelosi, said Ocasio-Cortez learned the importance of building coalitions and how to do it. “There’s a way to be constructive and progressive and a way to be divisive and come across to your colleagues as self-serving,” he said. “She took a number of steps in the first weeks, months, years and soon found how things worked.”
Ocasio-Cortez rejected the idea that expanding the coalition required weakening her agenda. “I personally don’t think that we need to water down on our policy and our agenda and our principles,” she said. “But I do think that we can expand and evolve in the way that we talk to people, and the way that we include people and shift away from a culture of exclusion.”
Some in the Democratic Socialists of America movement want to dismantle the Democratic Party altogether, saying it is beholden to campaign donors who oppose change. Those members are also critical of Ocasio-Cortez’s willingness to support Democratic leaders such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who said he doesn’t support the DSA agenda. Megan Romer, a national co-chair of the DSA, said, “I liked her when she first showed up and was a little more in your face.” Romer also said Ocasio-Cortez should use her influence to push harder for progressive policies. She acknowledged it was difficult “to keep us happy and also a whole bunch of people happy” while trying to pass legislation.
The Journal reported that many people on the political left were skeptical that a Democratic socialist would be accepted by senior Democratic Party figures. Alexander Greene, a college student and member of the Washington, D.C., DSA chapter, said Ocasio-Cortez is “trying to be in the Democratic circle, but the truth is, she never will be, and it’s pointless to try.” Greene said the DSA label meant no amount of moderating would appease senior Democratic Party figures and that trying to do so was “just kind of compromising yourself.” This summer, a DSA group that describes itself as Marxist-Leninist-Maoist said Ocasio-Cortez was not a socialist but “an opportunist dilettante, devoid of any principles whatsoever.” Cara Tobe, a spokeswoman for the national DSA, played down the criticism: “They are a minuscule group in the organization and have little to no ability to make decisions on behalf of either the national or local leadership,” she said.
Her money has gone to both camps. She backed progressive outsider candidates in open-seat primaries, including former public-health official Abdul El-Sayed, now the Democratic candidate in Michigan’s hotly contested Senate race, and she transferred $1 million to boost his campaign, according to her team. In September, she endorsed state Rep. Angie Nixon, a progressive who beat a well-funded, party-backed candidate in Florida’s Democratic Senate primary. Nixon, who joined the DSA this year, is waging another underdog campaign in red-state Florida against Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, according to The Wall Street Journal.
This year, Ocasio-Cortez’s unwillingness to back primary candidates running against Democratic House incumbents frustrated some activists who wanted her to team up with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, another Democratic socialist. Mamdani successfully endorsed a slate of DSA and progressive candidates in New York’s primaries. The Journal reported that at least five Democratic socialists are expected to join Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib, another Democratic socialist, in Congress next year. El-Sayed in Michigan and former Maine state Senate president Troy Jackson are progressive Democratic nominees in two competitive Senate races. The Journal said those matchups would test a longstanding belief that candidates must be moderates to win tough races.
The Journal reported that a series of Democratic primary wins among candidates on the political left drew national attention this year. It said Ocasio-Cortez faced potential loss of support from that constituency as she broadened her appeal.
Coalition outreach and policy
Ocasio-Cortez has sought to broaden her coalition among Black voters and segments of Make America Healthy Again. The Journal said colleagues wary of her Democratic socialist credentials viewed her more inclusive approach skeptically. The approach coincided with a growing embrace of a populist economic agenda among Americans in both parties, according to a Wall Street Journal poll in September. The poll also found strong support across parties for capping the cost of prescription drugs, child care and credit-card interest rates, policies favored by Ocasio-Cortez.
Ocasio-Cortez has spent time meeting with Black voters in the South, a Democratic voting constituency that candidates aligned with the political left, including Sen. Bernie Sanders during his presidential bids, have struggled to win over. In September, she spoke at the National Baptist Convention, which the Journal described as one of the largest African-American religious conventions in the U.S.
Zen Honeycutt, the head of Moms Across America, had a video call with Ocasio-Cortez in July at the congresswoman’s request. Honeycutt had supported Trump in 2024 for his alignment with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. but said she was disappointed by the Trump administration’s decision to provide protections for the company that makes glyphosate, a key ingredient in the herbicide Roundup. She said she and Ocasio-Cortez found common ground in restricting glyphosate and new data centers and expanding access to healthy food. “While I personally think some of her more controversial far-left views don’t sit well with most moms out there, I think we can all agree that healthy nutrient-dense food is something everyone can get behind,” Honeycutt said.
Ocasio-Cortez said Make America Healthy Again activists aren’t so far from progressives on some issues. “To be honest, especially when it comes to things like the MAHA movement,” she said, “a lot of it is just top versus bottom, and corruption is something that transcends party.” The poll also found that 72% of Democratic voters had a favorable view of Ocasio-Cortez, compared with 26% of independent voters and 3% of Republicans.
Ocasio-Cortez continues to champion a single-payer national health insurance system and argues that passing it requires a wider coalition. “If we are going to pass Medicare for All, we have to expand the coalition,” she said. “If we want to guarantee healthcare in America, we need to grow our tent. Period.” The Wall Street Journal reported that Medicare for All remains politically charged among Democrats, though polls showed it had become more popular with Americans during her time in office. Ocasio-Cortez frequently discusses in interviews and on social media how it would lower costs and provide guaranteed health care.
The Journal said she has also tried to move the progressive movement past some of its rhetoric. In an ABC TV interview, she said voters should judge progressive midterm candidates based on what they are now campaigning on, not what was said during the pandemic shutdowns and protests of 2020. “Woke 1.0 was crazy,” she said while quoting a New York City councilman and laughing.
At the same time, Ocasio-Cortez has worked with Republican lawmakers on legislation, including a bill to ban lawmakers from trading stocks. She made friends with Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, a stalwart Trump supporter who calls her a buddy and a “friendly neighborhood Marxist.” When Ocasio-Cortez spoke recently at the Capitol with the Journal, Republican Rep. Jodey Arrington of Texas walked over to pat her shoulder and say hello.
Other Republicans have been less collegial. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who leads the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, said, “Her approach to becoming more visible and, frankly, trying to become more likable to the middle of the country is the same thing we say when we talk about wolves in sheep’s clothing, you can’t trust them.” Proposals such as Medicare for All, he said, are “just the kind of radical, dangerous policy that leads to the end of America as we know it.”
Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York said she never thought she could work with Ocasio-Cortez. Not in “a million years,” she said. But the two lawmakers found they agreed on maternal health care issues. “My mother fled a communist country, so the things that she says, I find a little offensive,” Malliotakis said. Even so, “We were actually able to work together on legislation and get it across the finish line in committee unanimously, which was great,” she said.
2028 presidential and Senate ambitions
The open question is whether that strategy carries into a presidential run. In August, Ocasio-Cortez told her nearly 10 million Instagram followers that she had decided to freeze her eggs, an announcement that stoked speculation she was preparing for the 2028 Democratic presidential primaries. “This is a choice that I am making to feel more in control of my life,” she said. The Journal reported that she has been ranked among the party’s top presidential primary contenders alongside Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. She is flattered though skeptical of polls showing her leading, said a person familiar with her thinking. The Journal also reports that she is weighing a challenge to Schumer for his New York Senate seat.
For now, the Journal assessed Ocasio-Cortez as the front-runner to lead the Democratic Party’s progressive wing. Her mentor, Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders, 85, has signaled he will not run again for president. Ocasio-Cortez joined Sanders at stops during his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour after Trump’s return to office, and the Journal said their appearances further fueled speculation about her inheriting the grassroots movement behind Sanders’s two presidential campaigns. The Journal reported that Sanders’s 2020 presidential primary campaign failed to attract a wide enough swath of voters before the moderate Democratic candidates dropped out and united behind Biden.
Ocasio-Cortez is up for reelection in November in a New York City district she won by close to 40 percentage points two years ago, a seat the Journal said she could hold for the foreseeable future. What remains unsettled is whether Ocasio-Cortez can maintain support among voters on the political left who back her while pursuing a broader coalition, and whether a bid for the Senate or White House would force a sharper choice between those constituencies.
Reporting team
Eliza Collins is a national political reporter for The Wall Street Journal based in Phoenix, covering the politics of Arizona and western states. She travels the country looking at how politics in Washington affect people in the real world. Collins has been with the Journal since 2019 and was previously based in Washington, D.C., where she covered Congress and campaigns. In 2022, she reported from Germany as an Arthur Burns Fellow, with coverage focused on the effects of the war in Ukraine on Europe. Before joining the Journal, she was a political reporter for USA Today and Politico, always focused on politics.
Maya Davis is a news associate at The Wall Street Journal. Before joining the Journal, she was on the national desk at Bloomberg News, where she broke stories on educational institutions’ connections to Jeffrey Epstein. She has reported from Europe and South America, covering politics, migration and sports, and began her career in health news at CNN, WebMD and Medscape. Davis is a graduate of Brown University and the Watson School of International and Public Affairs, where she studied biology and security. During her time at Brown, she reported for the Brown Daily Herald and the Providence Eye and was a member of the women’s gymnastics team. She is from Brooklyn, New York City, speaks Spanish and can be reached by email or Signal at mayd.32.
Sabrina Rodriguez is a politics reporter for The Wall Street Journal in Washington, D.C. Before joining the Journal, she was a national politics reporter at The Washington Post, where she traveled the country capturing the mood among Americans, particularly Latinos and young people, and the issues fueling their political mobilization or disaffection. She previously worked at Politico as a trade-policy reporter during the first Trump administration, then covered the White House, national politics and immigration and reported from Mexico and Guatemala. Her work was also featured in her hometown Miami Herald, Miami New Times and Chalkbeat. Rodriguez is a native of Hialeah, Florida, and a graduate of Northwestern University.