Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is working to patch things up with the same left-wing activists who pulled their endorsement of her less than two years ago, a charm offensive that coincides with her open consideration of a 2028 presidential or Senate bid. The New York Democrat has shifted her public stance on Israel funding, appeared in a virtual forum with Democratic Socialists of America members, and secured a fresh endorsement from the group's New York City chapter, all while her former top aides offer blunt assessments of her political limits.

The maneuvering, detailed by Axios, paints a picture of a politician who once dismissed the organizations that helped launch her career now scrambling to rebuild those bridges before the next election cycle.

From insurgent to establishment, and back again

Ocasio-Cortez burst onto the national stage with her insurgent 2018 House campaign, powered in part by Justice Democrats and the DSA. But the relationship curdled. In Ryan Grim's book "The Squad," Ocasio-Cortez was remarkably candid about the groups that claimed credit for her rise.

"As much as I love them, I did not win my election because of DSA. Or even [Justice Democrats]. Or any of these orgs," she said. "We had built everything from scratch and did the hardest parts, and then when it looked appealing enough they jumped in."

That kind of talk doesn't go over well with ideological activists who view themselves as the backbone of the progressive movement. And by July 2024, the DSA's national leadership had seen enough. The group formally withdrew its endorsement of Ocasio-Cortez for that year's elections.

The stated reasons were specific. National Review reported that the DSA cited her support for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system, her refusal to back boycotting Zionist institutions, and a panel she hosted with Jewish leaders on antisemitism. The group called the panel "a deep betrayal to all those who've risked their welfare to fight Israeli apartheid and genocide through political and direct action."

The Israel pivot

Fast forward to recent weeks, and Ocasio-Cortez has changed course. In a virtual forum with New York City DSA members last month, she committed to vote against any U.S. funding to Israel, including for defensive weapons like the Iron Dome system that had been at the center of her split with the group. City and State New York first reported the commitment.

That reversal is worth sitting with. Ocasio-Cortez previously defended her Iron Dome-related votes and accused critics within her own party of lying about her record. "Google is free. If you're saying I voted for military funding, you are lying. Receipts attached," she wrote at the time. She also argued that an amendment by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to block $500 million for the Iron Dome would have done "nothing to cut off offensive aid to Israel nor end the flow of US munitions being used in Gaza."

Now she has pledged to oppose all funding, offensive and defensive alike. The shift didn't happen in a vacuum. It happened when she needed something from the people demanding it.

The broader friction between Ocasio-Cortez and the DSA had been building well before the 2024 endorsement withdrawal. The Washington Times reported that the DSA's endorsement had been conditioned on her publicly opposing all funding to Israel and supporting boycott movements. The group also cited her condemnation of a DSA-linked pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square in October as a source of tension.

Ocasio-Cortez responded to that rally by saying, "It should not be hard to shut down hatred and antisemitism where we see it. That is a core tenet of solidarity." The DSA saw it differently.

A 'master stroke', or a calculated flip?

Daniel Denvir, host of the socialist podcast "The Dig," told Axios the shift worked. "This has been a master stroke in repairing the relationship with the left, a belated master stroke, but still a master stroke," he said.

The results, at least on paper, back him up. The DSA's New York City chapter voted last week to endorse Ocasio-Cortez for reelection. But the margin tells a more complicated story: more than 500 members voted against the endorsement.

That is not a ringing embrace. It suggests a sizable faction within the DSA still doesn't trust her, and with reason. They watched her distance herself from the group for years, dismiss its role in her career, and take positions on Israel that broke with the socialist line. Now she has reversed those positions just as she is openly weighing higher office. The timing invites skepticism, even from allies.

One unnamed liberal strategist told Axios that Ocasio-Cortez has privately "lamented that the left was not there for her, that they are never pleased." In a virtual forum with DSA members, she argued that infighting "does not benefit us as a movement."

The broader Democratic infighting over Israel and AIPAC has exposed fault lines that run far deeper than one congresswoman's endorsement status. The party's progressive wing and its pro-Israel establishment wing are pulling in opposite directions, and Ocasio-Cortez is trying to straddle that divide while keeping her left flank intact.

The old allies weigh in

Some of the people who helped build Ocasio-Cortez's political career are now offering measured, and revealing, assessments of her trajectory.

Saikat Chakrabarti, her first chief of staff and co-founder of Justice Democrats, is now running for Congress in former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco district. Ocasio-Cortez has not endorsed him in the June 2 primary. Chakrabarti told Axios he was "not surprised," adding: "She has her process, and I'd of course love to earn her endorsement, but it's on us candidates to make the case and show momentum in our campaigns. I hope to do that soon."

That diplomatic answer doesn't quite mask the awkwardness. The woman who once relied on Chakrabarti to help engineer her upset victory won't put her name behind his campaign. Whether that reflects political caution or personal distance, it underscores how far Ocasio-Cortez has drifted from the original circle that launched her.

Then there is Corbin Trent, her former communications director and another Justice Democrats founder. Trent is writing a book due out before the 2028 primary, and he told Axios it "is a reflection of what I've learned: the limits of individuals, and that's both Bernie and AOC, and it doesn't matter how moral or just or telegenic or stubborn they are."

That is a polite way of saying the movement has outgrown its figureheads, or that the figureheads have failed to deliver. Either reading is unflattering for Ocasio-Cortez as she tries to position herself as the progressive heir apparent. Sen. John Fetterman's pointed criticism of the Democratic Party's anti-Israel wing has only made the internal contradictions harder to paper over.

2028 and the credibility question

Axios reports that Ocasio-Cortez is weighing both a White House run and a possible U.S. Senate bid in 2028. Early polls, the specifics of which are not detailed, apparently give her reason to consider both paths. Bernie Sanders, whose political lane she would inherit, "hasn't been shy about praising her."

She has also been building a track record of political muscle in New York. She helped push Zohran Mamdani to victory in last year's New York City mayoral primary, demonstrating that her endorsement still carries weight in local races.

But a national campaign would put her Israel reversal under a microscope. Voters outside deep-blue New York districts may not be as forgiving of a candidate who opposed all defensive aid to a key American ally simply to secure a socialist endorsement. The ideological splits inside the Democratic Party are not getting smaller, and Ocasio-Cortez's attempt to ride both sides of the divide will face sharper scrutiny on a bigger stage.

Her spokesperson declined to comment for the Axios report. That silence is itself telling. A politician who built her brand on directness and social media transparency chose not to explain her shifting positions on the record.

People familiar with the dynamic told Axios that some in the progressive movement view Ocasio-Cortez as someone whose political identity was forged eight years ago and who has since struggled to keep pace with a base that keeps moving further left. The campaign to win back DSA support is, in that light, less a homecoming than a concession, an acknowledgment that she cannot afford to lose the activists she once told she didn't need.

Ocasio-Cortez has previously sidestepped direct questions about a 2028 presidential run, but her recent moves suggest the question is no longer hypothetical. Every policy shift, every outreach call, every forum appearance is being calibrated with an eye toward a national campaign.

Her forays into other districts have already signaled a politician thinking beyond her Bronx-Queens base. The DSA reconciliation fits the same pattern.

The price of the pivot

What Ocasio-Cortez is doing is not unusual in politics. Candidates adjust positions to shore up their base before making a bigger play. But the scale and speed of this particular reversal, from defending Iron Dome votes and accusing critics of lying, to pledging opposition to all Israel funding within a matter of months, raises a straightforward question about conviction.

Did she believe what she said when she defended those votes? Does she believe what she's saying now? Or does she believe whatever the next audience needs to hear?

Conservative voters watching from the outside may find the spectacle instructive. When a progressive leader abandons a position on a core national security alliance to win back a socialist endorsement, it tells you everything about where the incentives in that party actually point.