The 2024 runner-up is weighing a 2028 bid that evokes dread in the vast majority of Democratic operatives and donors. Why? AIDAN MCLAUGHLIN spoke with more than two dozen of them to find out—and get a sense of her deliberations behind the scenes.
She could be showing up to or even leading protests and marches, writing editorials and opinion columns, appearing on news channels and podcasts. She could be speaking out, rallying people in opposition. She could’ve shown up at any of the big protests this past year, posted comments on social media.
I have seen absolutely nothing from her this past year except a couple of tepid comments about maybe running for office again.
I get it: she had a high-profile job, was thrown into a crushing high-stakes election at the last minute, spent a lot of energy campaigning and got her hopes crushed. But she’s had a year and a half to get over it, and there’s still nothing.
The country needs a leader and a fighter. She’s doing neither. Hard pass.
There is no DNC person out there fighting beside AOC. She does the work and I am with her for whatever office she runs for and I am all the way in the mountains of NC. My district is Tim Moore that Sméagol looking mother fucker. The NC DNC has done nothing to help the Democratic candidates in the western part of the state for years. Lakesha Womack is who the NC DNC is propping up and I have not seen or heard from her at any protest I have been to. I am sure no one in the 14th knows who she is outside of Gastonia. I digress.
No one just gives you a platform - you make it. You show up at whatever opportunity can find or make and say your thing - and she’s not doing it. Hell, I’ve heard five times more anti-Trump / anti-regime stuff from Mark Hamill on Twitter/BlueSky than I have from her, and that’s like one of the most low-effort things you can do, yet she hasn’t made even one anti-whatever tweet a month. Hell, she wouldn’t even have to do it herself, she could hire a part-time college student or something.
She’s not tweeting, she’s not on podcasts advocating for her positions, she’s not on opinion shows or editorial pages saying “what’s happening is wrong and here’s a way to fix it”. It’s been dead silence from her for a year and a half.
If she’s not willing to go out and fight for a job she’s wanted for well over a decade, I can’t trust her to fight for the things _I_ want.
She doesn’t have the platform because she threw it away. She was never a serious candidate to solve anything. She was never going to fight for the working class or the minorities, because in the end she cared more about selling a book than the people. She is the exact thing wrong with almost every single democrat politician. She cares more about what she can make, than what she can do.
She has no position from which to fight fascism.
She could be showing up to or even leading protests and marches, writing editorials and opinion columns, appearing on news channels and podcasts. She could be speaking out, rallying people in opposition. She could’ve shown up at any of the big protests this past year, posted comments on social media.
I have seen absolutely nothing from her this past year except a couple of tepid comments about maybe running for office again.
I get it: she had a high-profile job, was thrown into a crushing high-stakes election at the last minute, spent a lot of energy campaigning and got her hopes crushed. But she’s had a year and a half to get over it, and there’s still nothing.
The country needs a leader and a fighter. She’s doing neither. Hard pass.
There is no DNC person out there fighting beside AOC. She does the work and I am with her for whatever office she runs for and I am all the way in the mountains of NC. My district is Tim Moore that Sméagol looking mother fucker. The NC DNC has done nothing to help the Democratic candidates in the western part of the state for years. Lakesha Womack is who the NC DNC is propping up and I have not seen or heard from her at any protest I have been to. I am sure no one in the 14th knows who she is outside of Gastonia. I digress.
She could be, and people would be telling her “You lost, shut up and go away.”
She doesn’t have the platform.
No one just gives you a platform - you make it. You show up at whatever opportunity can find or make and say your thing - and she’s not doing it. Hell, I’ve heard five times more anti-Trump / anti-regime stuff from Mark Hamill on Twitter/BlueSky than I have from her, and that’s like one of the most low-effort things you can do, yet she hasn’t made even one anti-whatever tweet a month. Hell, she wouldn’t even have to do it herself, she could hire a part-time college student or something.
She’s not tweeting, she’s not on podcasts advocating for her positions, she’s not on opinion shows or editorial pages saying “what’s happening is wrong and here’s a way to fix it”. It’s been dead silence from her for a year and a half.
If she’s not willing to go out and fight for a job she’s wanted for well over a decade, I can’t trust her to fight for the things _I_ want.
You can’t make a platform when people are not only not actively listening to you, but are actually telling you to shut up and sit down.
Did you see the reactions to her book?
She doesn’t have the platform because she threw it away. She was never a serious candidate to solve anything. She was never going to fight for the working class or the minorities, because in the end she cared more about selling a book than the people. She is the exact thing wrong with almost every single democrat politician. She cares more about what she can make, than what she can do.