NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wouldn’t rule out a primary challenge against Sen. Chuck Schumer in 2022, when he's up for reelection.
CNN’s Dana Bash posed the question to the congresswoman during an interview for “Being…AOC,” which airs Monday and is the first episode in a CNN series called “Being…”
“Are you going to challenge Sen. Schumer in a primary race?” Bash asked, prompting a laugh from Ocasio-Cortez.
“I know it drives everybody nuts. But the way that I really feel about this, and the way that I really approach my politics and my political career, is that I do not look at things and I do not set my course positionally,” Ocasio-Cortez told Bash.
“I know there’s a lot of people who do not believe that,” she added. “But I really—I can’t operate the way that I operate and do the things that I do in politics while trying to be aspiring to other things or calculating to other things.”
“And so, all that is to say is that I make decisions based on what I think our people need and my community needs—and so, I’m not commenting on that,” the congresswoman said.
Ocasio-Cortez, who represents part of Queens and the Bronx, hasn’t shown any indication that she’s going to challenge Schumer, who is the Senate's majority leader. But the possibility has been talked about for some time, with the chairman of the state Democratic Committee saying last year that AOC would “absolutely” lose to the longtime senator if she did run against him.
Asked about a potential Senate run in January, Ocasio-Cortez said she was "still very much in a place where I’m trying to decide what is the most effective thing I can do to help our Congress."
Ocasio-Cortez told Bash that she and Schumer have been aligned on a number of legislative issues in Washington, where Schumer has championed progressive causes like canceling student loan debt.
“For what it’s worth, Sen. Schumer and I have been working very closely on a lot of legislation and that, to me, is important,” she said. “And so, we shall see.”
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