New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and California Rep. Ro Khanna are splitting the allegiances of veterans from Bernie Sanders' two presidential campaigns. The pair, both Democrats, are competing to inherit his progressive movement while building momentum toward possible White House runs in 2028.
The split reflects tensions between Sanders' 2016 and 2020 campaigns. Khanna has taken a slightly more centrist view on issues such as crime and immigration, hiring key members from Sanders' 2016 effort — which had a relatively moderate brand on those topics and did not fear going negative on Hillary Clinton.
Ocasio-Cortez, by contrast, has tapped strategists behind Sanders' 2020 bid. In that race, the Vermont senator moved left on social issues to back policies such as decriminalizing border crossings by unauthorized immigrants, and largely avoided bashing Joe Biden.
The fault lines burst into public view last week when the two lawmakers clashed over whether progressives should work with former MAGA loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene. The confrontation underscores a deeper strategic question: how aggressively to engage with former Trump allies in pursuit of common goals.
Countering this binary framing, both lawmakers share substantial policy overlap on core progressive issues like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. Their tactical differences may matter less in a general election than primary-season positioning suggests.