一个新团体正试图利用民主党在中期选举中取得的压倒性胜利，为众议员亚历山德拉·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯2028年竞选总统造势。
A new group is seeking to capitalize on Democrats’ overwhelming victories in the midterm elections to drum up support for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run for president in 2028.
名为“Ready for AOC”（准备好迎接AOC）的志愿者主导的进步派团体于周一启动，正致力于争取100万份承诺，承诺者将支持奥卡西奥-科尔特斯竞选总统，希望这种支持声势能说服她参选。
Ready for AOC, a volunteer-led progressive group that launched Monday, is working to secure 1 million pledges from people who would support an Ocasio-Cortez presidential bid, hoping the show of support will persuade her to run.
该团体与奥卡西奥-科尔特斯没有隶属关系，后者尚未宣布是否竞选总统——至少目前没有。组织者希望通过他们的努力，她能在2027年春季前做出决定，届时该团体计划解散。
The group is not affiliated with Ocasio-Cortez, who has not announced whether she will run for president — at least not yet. Organizers hope that, with their efforts, she will make a decision by spring 2027, at which point the group plans to dissolve.
该团体的外联总监汉娜·凯塞尔对MS NOW表示：“虽然有太多理由让人感到幻灭，选民在我们的政治体制中以许多不同方式被剥夺了权利，但仍有理由抱有希望，我们上周看到了这一点。因此，我们希望让人们参与到这一愿景中来。”
“While there have been so many reasons to feel disenchanted, and voters have been disenfranchised in so many different ways in our political system, there is reason to have hope, and we saw that last week,” Hannah Kessel, the group’s field director, told MS NOW. “And so, we’re looking to engage people in that vision.”
奥卡西奥-科尔特斯被广泛视为参议员伯尼·桑德斯（无党派-佛蒙特州）在进步运动领袖位置上的潜在继任者，后者2016年的总统竞选帮助建立了这一运动。但她对自己的政治雄心一直守口如瓶。然而在最近几个月，她透露了一些关于下一步行动的暗示。5月在芝加哥的一个政治活动上被问及是否会竞选总统时，奥卡西奥-科尔特斯拒绝给出明确回答。
Ocasio-Cortez is widely viewed as a potential successor to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as leader of the progressive movement his 2016 presidential campaign helped build. But she has largely kept her political ambitions a mystery. In recent months, however, she has offered hints about what she might do next. Asked at a political event in Chicago in May whether she would run for president, Ocasio-Cortez declined to give a definitive answer.
“有趣的是，他们假设我的雄心是一个头衔或一个席位，”她说，“我的雄心是改变这个国家。总统来了又走。参议院、众议院席位、民选官员来了又走。”7月，她告诉《政治报》：“我是说，我不能说我已经排除了这种可能性。”9月，她给出了迄今最明确的信号，告诉《纽约时报》她将在中期选举后决定是竞选总统，还是挑战参议员查克·舒默（民主党-纽约州）的参议员席位。
“What’s funny is they assume my ambition is a title or a seat,” she said. “My ambition is to change this country. Presidents come and go. Senate, House seats, elected officials come and go.”In July, she told Politico: “I mean, I can’t say that I’ve ruled it out.”In September, she gave her clearest indication yet, telling The New York Times that she would decide after the midterms whether to run for president or challenge Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for his Senate seat.
“为AOC做好准备”组织想要给她最后一推，让她投身总统竞选。原因何在？该组织援引了这位众议员丰富的基层组织经验、反对大金主介入政治，当然还有她巨大的明星效应。
Ready for AOC wants to give her the final push to a presidential campaign. Why? The group cites the congresswoman’s extensive grassroots organizing experience, opposition to big money in politics and, of course, her massive star power.
像“为AOC做好准备”这样依靠捐款运作的独立团体，往往会在政客宣布竞选总统之前出现。2014年，在2016年总统大选前夕，类似的基层行动曾形成，鼓励希拉里·克林顿和马萨诸塞州民主党参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦参选。
Independent groups like Ready for AOC, which relies on donations, often emerge before a politician announces a presidential bid. In 2014, ahead of the 2016 presidential election, similar grassroots efforts formed to encourage Hillary Clinton and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to enter the race.
组织者表示，“为AOC做好准备”是仿照佐赫兰·马姆达尼的纽约市长竞选和前总统巴拉克·奥巴马2008年总统竞选的成功经验建立的。该组织的实地行动团队成员包括马姆达尼市长竞选、阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德的密歇根州参议员竞选以及桑德斯2020年总统竞选的资深人士，仅举几例。
Organizers say Ready for AOC was modeled after the success of Zohran Mamdani’s New York mayoral campaign and former President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008. The group’s field operations team includes veterans of Mamdani’s mayoral campaign, Abdul El-Sayed’s Michigan Senate campaign and Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, to name a few.
该组织创始人之一拉维·萨海曾担任奥卡西奥-科尔特斯2024年连任竞选的实地组织者，最近还管理了克莱尔·瓦尔德兹成功竞选纽约第七国会选区的竞选活动。凯塞尔是一位资深政治组织者，曾参与桑德斯2020年总统竞选、洛杉矶多个市议会竞选，并与“劳动家庭党”合作过。
Ravi Sahai, one of the group’s founders, worked as a field organizer for Ocasio-Cortez’s 2024 reelection campaign and, more recently, managed Claire Valdez’ successful campaign for New York’s 7th Congressional District. Kessel, a longtime political organizer, previously worked on Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, several city council campaigns in Los Angeles and with the Working Families Party.
“我们在这里是因为我们相信，进步派在2028年赢得总统职位不仅是可能的，而且很重要，”凯塞尔说。“重要的是我们要共同将重点转移到这上面，动员成千上万的人。”“为AOC做好准备”希望签署承诺书的支持者最终能在各自社区组织小型聚会，鼓励其他人考虑奥卡西奥-科尔特斯竞选总统。
“We’re here because we believe that winning the presidency is not only possible in 2028 for progressives, but it’s also important,” Kessel said. “And it’s important that we shift our focus to this collectively, in the thousands and tens of thousands.”Ready for AOC hopes supporters who sign its pledge will eventually organize small gatherings in their communities to encourage others to consider an Ocasio-Cortez presidential bid.
“我们称之为家庭聚会，这是一种可以追溯到联合农场工人组织和其他劳工运动的策略，”凯塞尔对《密西西比现在》表示，并补充道，“目标是接触你认识的人，这是与人谈论政治最有效的方式之一。”美国民主社会主义者纽约分会——该分会在奥卡西奥-科尔特斯2018年的初选胜利和扎赫兰·马姆达尼去年成功的市长竞选中发挥了关键作用——表示，它与“为AOC准备”组织没有隶属关系。该分会称，其成员将在未来几周内讨论他们对2028年大选的应对策略。
“We call it a house meeting, and it’s a strategy that dates back to United Farm Workers and other labor movements,” Kessel told MS NOW, adding, “the goal is to reach people that you know, which is one of the most effective ways of talking to people about politics.”The New York chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America — which played a pivotal role in Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 primary upset and Zohran Mamdani’s successful mayoral campaign last year — said it is not affiliated with Ready for AOC. The chapter said its members will debate their approach to the 2028 elections in the coming weeks.
“决定竞选总统可能是一个人、任何人所能做出的最大决定之一。这是一个高度个人化的决定，”凯塞尔说。“作为一个竞选团队，我们非常尊重这一决定尚未做出的事实，我们也能接受这种不确定性。我们同时也相信，我们能以积极的方式影响她参选的决定。我们希望她能参选。”
“Deciding to run for president is maybe one of the biggest decisions that a person, any person, can make. And it’s a highly personal one,” Kessel said. “We as a campaign really respect the fact that that decision has not been made yet, and we are okay with that uncertainty. And we also believe that we can influence, in a positive way, her decision to run. We hope that she does.”