Vice President JD Vance said that he believes Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be the leading Democratic candidate for president 2028.
“I think it’s got to be AOC. I know that’s probably conventional wisdom,” Vance said during an interview on “The Michael Knowles Show” released Tuesday.
When the host argued that conventional wisdom pointed more toward California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Vance pushed back.
“No, no,” he said. “I don’t buy that. I think I think he hurt himself with his comment to an audience full of black Americans that I’m low IQ, just like you.”
Vance was referring to a comment Newsom made at an event promoting his book in Atlanta, where the California governor said, “I’m not trying to impress you. I’m just trying to impress upon you. I’m like you. I’m no better than you, you know, I’m a 960 SAT guy … you’ve never seen me read a speech, because I can’t read a speech.”
Vance is considered a possible leading GOP candidate for president; Donald Trump has openly mused about whether his vice president or Secretary of State Marco Rubio might succeed him. In recent days, Trump has turned his focus on Democrats’ left flank, seizing on the electoral success of several democratic socialist candidates to claim the party was being taken over by “godless Communists” who pose an existential threat to the nation.
Asked by CNN about Vance’s comments, Ocasio-Cortez smiled and said, “I hope he is” the nominee.
Pressed on whether he believed Ocasio-Cortez would be the leading 2028 candidate over someone like Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, Vance said it will depend on where the power is held in the party. Ossoff has generated some buzz as a possible presidential contender, though he has a more immediate challenge of holding onto his Senate seat in the midterms.
“I guess the question would be, ‘Who do you think really has the power in the Democratic Party?’ And if you think the answer is like Wall Street and the left of center business community, then it would be Ossoff, and if you think it’s the universities, it would be AOC,” he said.
Vance argued that the Democrats are “just so dominated by the crazy people.”
“It’s like they can’t figure out the part where they get the economic populism, which actually is very popular, and I think Republicans should be more worried about that,” he said.
CNN’s Arlette Saenz contributed to this report.
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