For the last decade, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has been running for president or pushing President Joe Biden to adopt more progressive policies.
Now, as Democrats face legal and fundraising attacks from the Trump administration, base voters are furious at their congressional leadership and the party’s falling popularity to a generational low.
A movement politician with a large and devoted base of supporters, the 83-year-old Mr. Sanders has signaled he does not intend to run for president again. The question is who will lead the network he built from scratch into the next presidential election and beyond.
Interviews with nearly 20 progressive Democrats revealed a faction that sees the ideas Mr. Sanders has championed – reducing billionaire power, increasing the minimum wage, focusing on worker plights – as core to the next generation of mainstream Democratic politics.
Though there is little agreement on who will emerge to lead progresses into a post-Sanders era, virtually everyone interviewed said there was one clear leader for the job: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
And it just so happened that Mr. Sanders and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez spent three days last week on a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour through Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado.
She is what’s next – if she wants it.
Alexandria has been doing an extraordinary job in the House. You can’t sit back. You can’t wallow in despair. You’ve got to stand up, fight back, and get involved in every way that you can. There’s nobody I know who can do that better than Alexandria.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who declined an interview request, has said nothing publicly about her political plans. Several people who spoke with her relayed that she was far from making any decisions.
But the fourth-term congresswoman has three clear options. She could focus on the House, where she has become a well-liked and respected member of the Democratic caucus, and try to become a committee chairwoman if Democrats win back a majority in next year’s midterm elections.
She could run for the seat now held by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader. Or she could seek the presidency in 2028.
Her evident frustration with Mr. Schumer after the passage of a Republican spending bill this month heated up the long-simmering conversation about whether she might run for his seat in 2028, whether he seeks a sixth term or not.
A person who has worked with Ms. Ocasio-Cortez on campaigns, and who insisted on anonymity to discuss private outreach, recounted being inundated with calls from Democrats – and not just those on the far left – after Mr. Schumer’s vote, asking about her future and encouraging her to consider higher office.
She’s not looking to jump to the next thing or the next thing or the next thing, just for the simple reason of jumping to that thing. When everyone is saying, “Speed up,” that’s actually the time to slow down.
You got to take a breath. That race for the U.S. Senate is three years away. Let’s govern for a little bit.
She has also had extensive conversations with House allies like Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who said he had spoken with her about his own deliberations over whether to run for the Senate.
Ahead of last year’s election, Mr. Raskin decided to remain in the House, passing on a Senate race in which he would have been a heavy favorite.
The Senate provides a larger megaphone for politicians, but he believes they can accomplish more of their policy goals in the House – a prospect that may appeal to Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who hardly needs a larger megaphone.
2028 jockeying on the left.
The question of who could assume the Sanders mantle – at least in part – is all but certain to come to a head in the next presidential election. In some ways, the jockeying is already evident.
The jockeying on the left has already begun. We’re going to see the beginning of a new progressive era where we’re going to see successive progressive nominees.
Some also argue that the tensions in today’s Democratic Party no longer center on the kinds of ideological clashes that characterized the 2020 primary race – left versus moderate and litmus tests on issues like Medicare for all.
At least for now, these Democrats say, the debates concern how and where to draw the line against President Trump and Elon Musk, the richest man in the world.
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