A.O.C. on the Clock

**Leigh Ann Caldwell** (0:02)
She is the only potential presidential candidate who has major decision to make, which at a time that totally coincides with her personal life and her fertility window.

**Peter Hamby** (0:20)
Welcome to The Powers That Be Daily, Puck's podcast focused on the intersection of Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley and Hollywood, and the players who run it all. I'm Peter Hamby. It's Wednesday, August 26th. Today, I'm joined by Leigh Ann Caldwell with a look at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrestling with her future. Yes, AOC is mulling a 2028 presidential bid, and she has to make a decision soon after the midterms. But she's also only in her 30s, newly single and on a very public fertility journey, which means her personal life is absolutely going to be a factor in deciding whether or not to seek the White House.
We'll discuss all that and much more on today's episode of The Powers That Be.
Happy Wednesday, everybody, and welcome to The Powers That Be. I'm joined today by my best and the brightest colleague in Washington, Leigh Ann Caldwell. Back from a little visit to South Carolina, Leigh Ann?

**Leigh Ann Caldwell** (1:30)
Yeah, I was there for a week, right before the primary. So when there were still 10 candidates in the race.

**Peter Hamby** (1:40)
You know some Myrtle Beach voters I've heard. I'm sure they were a good source of intel.

**Leigh Ann Caldwell** (1:45)
I do, my parents and my cousins.

**Peter Hamby** (1:49)
Dirty Myrtle, we love it. Speaking of South Carolina, there's a presidential race coming up, some primaries. It's going to start right after the midterms, like it or not.
And one person whose name is in the mix, maybe one of the most fascinating possible candidates in the mix, is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. You wrote about AOC this week for the best and brightest, great article, came out last night, been doing a lot of reporting. Look, there's, I mean, we were talking beforehand, there's two big topics to discuss with AOC. One is, will she run or won't she run? But two, she's currently chronicling her IVF fertility journey for the world to see.
You reported that she's single now. A lot of big life changes for AOC. I mean, deciding to run for president on top of being a millennial navigating being single in New York and doing IVF. I mean, not relatable for me certainly, but where is she at right now? These are lots of things to pull apart, Leigh Ann. Let's start with the presidential question. Obviously, she would be the next generation standard bearer for the left. People want her to run. Her numbers in early state polling, pretty good, especially among young people in New Hampshire and elsewhere. We'll see if she'll have an easier time or a harder time in places like South Carolina or New Mexico. But what does your reporting tell you about where her head's at right now?

**Leigh Ann Caldwell** (3:16)
That she's completely undecided.
She has a very close-knit team, very small team. She is not poll-driven, poll-tested, focus-grouped. She really runs on her intuition and a very small group of advisors.
But as you mentioned, Peter, she is the only potential presidential candidate who has a major decision to make, which at a time that totally coincides with her personal life and her fertility window. And I don't want to be that trad wife person who's talking about it in this way that women can't have it all. They have to choose whatever. But if you run for president, that's two years of your life. If you run to win, if you win a first term and a second term, that's 10 years. And there's always the political implications of a decision to run, right? You have the polling, you have how much money can you raise? What is your lane? All these political considerations. But something that's not talked about are people's personal considerations as well. And people always allude to it. Like, is this the right time for me and my family and my children and my spouse? They want to go through all of this. And AOC actually alluded to it in her first egg freezing video when she says that she's been extremely reflective lately. And that life always plays a role in some of these really big decisions that a person makes. And so what she's saying, what she's weighing right now, she has a lot of options. She can run for president. She can run for Senate, which every Democrat I talked to says that she would practically walk into that job if Schumer runs or if he doesn't run either way.
Or she could stay in the house and try to rise through the ranks there. And so she doesn't seem possible. No, it doesn't seem possible. And I have some reporting in my story about how after she didn't win the Oversight Committee Chairmanship, when her colleagues didn't elect her to that position a couple of years ago, instead they elected late 70-year-old white man. It was a clear sign to her that she doesn't really have a path to rise into leadership in the House. And there are some regret among House Democrats for sending her that very strong message at the time. As one Democratic aide told me that they wasted generational talent in a place that could have been really useful for House Democrats. But anyway, so she has a lot of options, but it's a decision that she has to make relatively soon. You know, the midterms are in just over two months, and the presidential is going to start shortly after.