Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) will visit Ithaca, Syracuse and Buffalo this fall to help “boost turnout,” the democratic socialist said in an interview with The New York Times.
A specific date and time has yet to be announced, and Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the details of her trip.
“New York has become increasingly relevant to whether we have a majority or not in the House of Representatives,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Times. She announced her upstate campaign stops alongside a $300,000 investment in a statewide campaign fund helmed by Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and focused on voter organizing across the state.
Ithaca has both a competitive Congressional race — incumbent Rep. Josh Riley (D-N.Y.) is fighting to keep the 19th Congressional District in Democratic hands against Republican State Sen. Peter Oberacker (R-N.Y.) — and a cadre of elected Democratic Socialists of America.
It is currently unclear if Ocasio-Cortez will appear alongside Riley.
Mayor Robert Cantelmo and Alderpersons Hannah Shvets ’27 (D-5th Ward), Jorge Defendini ’22 (D-1st Ward) and Kayla Matos (D-1st Ward) are all democratic socialists, though only Shvets, Defendini and Matos were officially endorsed by the DSA.
“Ithaca is one of the few (if not only) cities in the country with a DSA-member majority on council, and we’ve worked hard to help build a movement which is representative of the type of politics Ithacans want to see,” Shvets wrote to The Sun. “I think AOC visiting Ithaca makes sense given our organizing strength and being in a swing district.”
If Ocasio-Cortez chooses to run for Senate, Tompkins County is likely to be one of her stronger areas around the state: fellow democratic socialists have regularly been stronger in the county than in other areas around New York.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) won Tompkins County by 25% in the 2016 Democratic primary, while Cynthia Nixon, an actress and activist who challenged then-incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) in 2018, picked up a 13% win in the county.
Ocasio-Cortez has reportedly mulled either running for president or for New York’s Senate in 2028.
“I’ve been pretty open about the fact that I’m going to be weighing this decision, but I’m going to be weighing it after the midterm elections,” she told The Times.
Atticus Johnson is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is a news editor for the 144th Editorial Board and can be reached at ajohnson@cornellsun.com.
