Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) will not, at least for now, run for the U.S. Senate seat held by fellow New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, who is seeking another term next year.
Gillibrand announced her reelection bid in January. She was first appointed as New York’s junior Senator in 2009, filling the seat left vacant by Hillary Clinton. She won a 2010 special election to keep that seat and was reelected to full terms in 2012 and 2018.
The 56-year-old senator’s reelection campaign announcement comes as Democrats are trying to mitigate their 2022 midterm losses in the Empire State, traditionally considered a blue stronghold. Although Republicans fell short of toppling Gov. Kathy Hochul by a single-digit margin, they successfully flipped four congressional seats, including one held by Sean Patrick Maloney, the head of the House Democrats’ campaign arm. The loss of those seats to Republicans is widely blamed for the party’s failure to maintain a majority in the House.
Gillibrand’s pathway to reelection was also shadowed by speculation that she might face a number of challengers in the state primary, including Ocasio-Cortez and other younger members of the party’s progressive wing.
Jay Jacobs, who chairs the New York Democratic Party, said it is necessary for Democrats to avoid such potential infighting.
“I think it’s divisive. And unless you think you can win, it’s divisive unnecessarily,” Jacobs told Politico. “It’s using up resources we need to preserve for more coordinated work and the rest.”
With Ocasio-Cortez opting not, Gillibrand’s 2024 Senate bid seems to have become much less difficult. Other potential contenders, namely former Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) as well as Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), have also indicated that they won’t challenge her, according to Politico.
If Gillibrand wins the primary unopposed, chances are she will be facing off long-term Long Island Congressman and 2022 Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin, who has yet to rule out running for the Senate next year.
“This is one of the laziest, most forgettable, and unaccomplished senators in the country and certainly, in my lifetime in New York,” Zeldin said of Gillibrand at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland in March. Since his loss to Hochul, Zeldin has faced calls to run for the Senate, speaker of the House, Suffolk County executive, and chair of the Republican National Committee.
“Senator-what’s-her-name is wasting a Senate seat inside New York, and New Yorkers are getting rolled and screwed, because we have a senator who is not doing a good job representing all of us in New York,” he added.
“Zeldin’s lies are a sad attempt to distract from the fact that in his entire career in Congress he accomplished basically nothing,” a spokesperson said in a statement in response to Zeldin’s CPAC remarks. “On the other hand, Senator Gillibrand just passed the first federal anti-gun trafficking law in history, delivered health benefits to 9/11 first responders and our veterans, and brought home hundreds of millions of dollars for New York jobs, health care and education.”
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