If Zohran Mamdani Fails, AOC Could Pay the Price

The newly minted progressive star is likely to become New York’s next mayor. But if his policies flop, the blowback won’t stop with him—it could hit Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez right as 2028 heats up.

For months, New York’s DSA crowd grumbled that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hadn’t endorsed Zohran Mamdani for mayor. He was their guy. She was once their national standard-bearer. The holdup seemed to confirm many of the “she’s selling us out to become establishment” fears that some of the socialist set have privately and not-so-privately harbored over the last few years.

Then, a few weeks before the election, she finally did it. Maybe it helped. Maybe it didn’t matter at all. Maybe the timing was strategic, or maybe she just didn’t want to look like she was sitting it out if he ended up winning. Politics is messy that way.

But here’s the irony: if Mamdani had lost, AOC might have had more control over her future. Now that he’s likely to become mayor, her 2028 ambitions—if she has them—are partially tethered to his approval rating. That’s just a reality. He doesn’t have to be LaGuardia! But he can’t be a disaster. A deeply unpopular Mamdani heading into 2027 would become a problem for any former DSA members running for the nomination, let alone one who happens to also be from NYC. Fair or not, AOC is close enough in style, substance, and branding that she’d be the one stuck answering for it.