Far-left progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, has reportedly filed the necessary paperwork to run for Congress again in 2024, according to Fox News.

Given the heavily Democratic makeup of New York's 14th Congressional District, which encompasses parts of the Bronx and Queens in New York City, and barring a possible primary challenge against her, Ocasio-Cortez will presumably cruise to an easy re-election.

Headed toward a fourth term in Congress

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez first burst upon the scene in 2018 when she scored a seemingly highly unlikely primary victory against incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY), then a member of the House Democratic leadership team, and then went on to win the general election.

The young congresswoman swiftly rose to stardom on the ideological left and notoriety on the right due to her progressive policy proposals and influence over the Democratic Party's agenda.

She went on to win re-election to a second term in 2020 and is now on her third term in the House following a 70.6 percent to 27.5 percent victory over Republican challenger Tina Forte in the 2022 midterm election.

Aspirations for higher office?

Though Rep. Ocasio-Cortez has now reportedly filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for a fourth term in Congress, she had previously made it clear that she doesn't envision herself serving in the House of Representatives forever, according to Politico in 2020.

"I don’t know if I’m really going to be staying in the House forever, or if I do stay in the House, what that would look like," the then-freshman congresswoman said in an interview with Vanity Fair. "I don’t see myself really staying where I’m at for the rest of my life."

That led to plenty of speculation about the possible future aspirations of Ocasio-Cortez, including talk that never really played out of her launching a primary challenge from the left against the more moderate Democratic senators from her state -- Sens. Chuck Schumer, the leader of Senate Democrats, in the 2022 election or Kirsten Gillibrand in 2024.

There have even been rumors of a possible presidential run in the future, perhaps as soon as 2024 when she will have reached the Constitution's minimum age requirement of 35 for a presidential run, and if so, she stands poised to inherit much of the far-left progressive and socialist coalition that has been built up in support of the failed presidential bids by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

Unsure about a presidential bid

However, in that same Vanity Fair interview in 2020, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez also said that she didn't "want to aspire to a quote-unquote higher position just for the sake of that title or just for the sake of having a different or higher position," but rather would need to weigh how "effective" she could be in promoting her progressive agenda in any given elected office.

Furthermore, regardless of if she truly desires to run for the presidency eventually, the congresswoman revealed in a 2022 interview with GQ magazine, according to the U.K. Independent, that she had doubts about whether she could convince a majority of the supposedly deeply misogynistic and racist country to vote for her -- and that includes members of her own Democratic Party.

In reference to young girls who purportedly ask about her presidential aspirations, Ocasio-Cortez said, "It’s very difficult for me to talk about because it provokes a lot of inner conflict in that I never want to tell a little girl what she can’t do. And I don’t want to tell young people what is not possible. I’ve never been in the business of doing that."

She then went on to discuss how she believes "two contradictory things at the same time. One is just the relentless belief that anything is possible."

"But at the same time, my experience here has given me a front-row seat to how deeply and unconsciously, as well as consciously, so many people in this country hate women. And they hate women of color," Ocasio-Cortez added. "People ask me questions about the future. And realistically, I can’t even tell you if I’m going to be alive in September. And that weighs very heavily on me."