AOC raises $9.6 million in the first quarter of the year, signaling strong political momentum
WASHINGTON - Progressive New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has raised $9.6 million dollars in just the first three months of the year, as she's crisscrossed the country with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to mobilize voters and speculation about her political future has grown.
Ocasio-Cortez's momentum has grown in recent weeks as she's joined Sanders on a “fighting oligarchy” tour taking aim at President Donald Trump, the administration’s policies and the growing influence of billionaire Elon Musk. One rally in Denver, Colorado, drew over 30,000 people.
Her campaign manager, Oliver Hidalgo-Wohlleben, said on X that the average campaign donation was $21, and added, “AOC doesn’t take a dollar from lobbyists or corporate PACS. Our top donor professions are teachers and nurses. 64% were first time contributors.”
Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a follow up tweet that she was grateful to the millions of people supporting her. “Your support has allowed us to rally people together at record scale to organize their communities,” she wrote.
Her latest haul is more than double that of her previous quarterly record, which was $4.4 million between July and September of 2020.
At their rallies, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have bashed Trump’s tariffs, wealth inequality in the country and Musk’s campaign to slash federal bureaucracy, while touting the working class.
“It all trickles down to how life feels for working people today… the impossibility to afford anything easily,” said Ocasio-Cortez at a recent rally in Los Angeles. “The fear of speaking up, the deeply bitter and toxic division driven more by algorithms on social media than individual thought, the crumbling of our rights and protections - understand that all of this is what it means and what it feels like to be governed by billionaires. This is what oligarchy feels like. And it only will get worse until we act.”
Basil Smikle, former senior aide to Hillary Clinton and former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party, told Paste BN that Ocasio-Cortez does a good job of connecting older and younger Democrats “by a common thread in policy and engagement and advocacy.”
“People want to see her continue to do what she's doing,” he said of her latest fundraising figures. “I do think she has a future in statewide politics, should she choose it. But... I think that funding also helps her be able to support other Democrats across the country."
Some have called on Ocasio-Cortez to primary Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who faced backlash for voting to advance a Republican crafted spending bill last month. Schumer doesn’t run for reelection until 2028.
A recent poll by the liberal group Data for Progress found that in a hypothetical 2028 primary matchup, she would lead Schumer by 19 points, according to a survey of 767 likely Democratic primary voters in New York.
However, Ocasio-Cortez told Paste BN earlier this month that she was “just focused on the present moment.”