The Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) Liberation Caucus is rejecting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., as a potential candidate for Democrats in the 2028 presidential election, arguing she is too far removed from the socialist agenda.
"Liberation condemns Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's continued retreat from socialist politics and rejects any effort to present her as the future presidential standard-bearer for DSA, or for the broader socialist movement," the DSA Liberation Caucus wrote in the statement.
DSA slammed Ocasio-Cortez as an "opportunist," and condemned her vote to defend Israel’s right to exist and for not holding firm as an anti-Zionist.
"In short, it was determined that she had failed to meet conditions concerning Palestine solidarity," the statement said.
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After withdrawing a conditional endorsement of the "Squad" Democrat in 2024, DSA’s National Political Committee "determined" that Ocasio-Cortez hosted a public panel with an alleged Zionist organization — the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.
She was also trashed for joining a group of House Democrats to co-sign a statement — after voting against providing Israel with supplemental weapon funding — that voiced support for Israel’s right to have defensive systems.
The statement continued to attack her, pivoting to her recent remarks in an interview with ABC where Cortez walked back on her support for the movement to defund the police and the language used around policing in 2020, calling the 2020 "Woke 1" era for progressives "crazyyyyy."
"She has dismissed the mass radicalization around policing and abolition as part of the supposed excesses of 'Woke 1', seeking to reduce the historic Black-led uprising of 2020 to an embarrassing political phase," the statement reads.
It continues, "Ironically, her first electoral victory came in the heat of 'Woke 1', where she trafficked in the language of abolition. Now that she feels that she no longer needs it, she condemns it. This is the action of an opportunist dilettante, devoid of any principles whatsoever, not a socialist."
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The DSA’s rejection of Ocasio-Cortez comes shortly after the organization recently announced its new program that calls for the complete elimination of the Senate, president and Supreme Court. The DSA said this program, "Workers Deserve More," must be accepted and promoted by all candidates in order to receive a formal DSA endorsement.
"This is why the current rumblings for and prospects of an AOC presidential campaign should be met with a clear answer from the socialist left: No," the group said in the statement. "We will not endorse or give succor to a campaign to put a social democrat at the head of an empire, where she will make even more capitulations to the imperialists, and drag our organization into antagonistic contradiction after antagonistic contradiction."
While the national DSA does not endorse Ocasio-Cortez, and vehemently opposes her presidential bid, the New York City DSA chapter has routinely endorsed Ocasio-Cortez throughout her races. The statement claims that the NYC DSA chapter has hinted at "splitting away" from the DSA over disagreements similar to endorsing Ocasio-Cortez.
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"This is not the behavior of socialist cadres," the Liberation Caucus said in the statement.
There has been widespread speculation that Ocasio-Cortez will run for president or Senate in 2028, and is polling as the leading choice among Democrats. But she has not yet formally announced if she will run.
Formed in 2025, the DSA Liberation Caucus openly describes itself as a "Marxist-Leninist-Maoist caucus in Democratic Socialists of America." The group's website has a page dedicated to a list defending Maoism that includes labeling the period of mass starvation and disaster as "misconception 4" on the list.
Both the DSA Liberation Caucus and Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
