Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t back Schumer in Senate leadership vote

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) declined to back Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) as he prepares to seek his caucus's support to become majority leader beginning in January.

Asked by reporters outside the Capitol if she would back her home state's senator for the top spot in the upper chamber given calls for new leadership in the party, Ocasio-Cortez said that would be up to members of the Senate.

"I think that this is a sentiment that is seen in a lot of places," Ocasio-Cortez said. "So how the Senate navigates that, that's up to their decision."

Schumer, who will turn 76 later this month, has faced skepticism and calls to step down from some younger members of his party. Multiple incoming Senate Democrats — Sens.-elect Adam Hamilton (D-Kan.), Annie Andrews (D-S.C.), Abdul El-Sayed (D-Mich.) and Troy Jackson (D-Maine) — have said they will not back Schumer for majority leader.

Still, the leader said he had secured enough support to become Senate leader, something he needs a majority of his caucus to do. After Democrats' massive victories in the midterms, the party's now-sizable majority in the upper chamber allows him to win a vote even if some Senate Democrats do not back him.

If Schumer runs for reelection in 2028, he would be 84 at the end of his next term. Ocasio-Cortez is seen as a potential challenger to Schumer in the Democratic primary but pivoted when asked if she would take him on, saying Americans do not want to hear about another election.

"The last thing that people want to hear from me or any other politician here is about the next election," Ocasio-Cortez said. "They want to know about the investigations we're going to be starting, what is the legislation that we're going to be starting … what we're going to do with the power that they just gave us."

If she does not challenge Schumer, the progressive Democrat is also seen as a possible presidential candidate in 2028. A political action committee run by progressive activists, called "Ready for AOC," recently launched in an attempt to draw her into the race.

Ocasio-Cortez has been candid that she is considering her options — presidential campaign or primary challenge.

"I think that anything is possible at this juncture," Ocasio-Cortez told ABC News' "This Week" in August.