Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is bringing in a strategist who helped build Bernie Sanders’ online fundraising operation, as attention grows around her possible plans for 2028.
Ocasio-Cortez has ended her relationship with Middle Seat, the digital fundraising firm she had worked with for years, Axios reported Thursday, citing three people familiar with the change. She has hired Aisle 518 Strategies, run by Democratic strategist Tim Tagaris. Tagaris helped lead the small-donor fundraising efforts for Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.
The staffing change comes as some progressive groups urge Ocasio-Cortez to run for president in 2028. There is also speculation that she could challenge Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for his New York seat that year, if he runs for re-election. That could set up a high-profile Democratic primary.
Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not comment Thursday. Middle Seat and Aisle 518 Strategies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Sanders’ 2016 campaign drew waves of small-dollar donations by responding to major campaign events and criticism from Democratic establishment figures. The fundraising helped the Vermont senator, then a relatively little-known figure nationally, mount a surprisingly competitive challenge to Hillary Clinton.
“Internet fundraising is about taking potential energy and converting it into kinetic energy, and nobody has done that better than Bernie Sanders,” Democratic strategist Ari Rabin-Havt told Politico in 2016, praising Tagaris and his team’s emails.
Sanders’ campaign raised $34.5 million in the final three months of 2019, according to the Associated Press. He briefly became the Democratic front-runner early the following year, before Joe Biden gathered enough support to win the nomination. Sanders’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this year, Ocasio-Cortez also parted ways with her longtime campaign manager and creative director and brought on several former aides, Axios reported.
“I know there is a lot of speculation about what I will decide to do in 2028,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a recent fundraising email. “I get asked about it nearly every interview and event.”
In an interview published Wednesday, she told The Washington Sun that she plans to consider her political future privately.
“I probably will not be sharing anything publicly for a little while,” she said.
