AOC would not be a serious contender at all. She’s way too extreme. Nobody can win without centrist support at this point, and AOC is not capable of winning that.
Not to mention the hurdle of the first woman president on top of that. Not saying I agree with that being a hurdle of course, but in reality it is.
I mean, at that time he wasn’t a criminal (at least publicly, we all know in hindsight he definitely was), but I honestly think the only reason Trump won was because he was running against such a hated person. Democrats made a massive misstep in rallying behind Hillary in that election, just like republicans are making a mistake rallying behind Trump in 2024.
But, that doesn’t mean that the moderate voter base isn’t important. That was the exception to the rule in my opinion.
Honestly, I don’t really like AOC. I agree with her a lot of the time, but I find her extremely disingenuous. How can you truly fight for the working class when you lived a life of extreme privilege? (EDIT: I was wrong about this. I either feel for misinformation, or misattributed something I heard about a different politician to her. Either way I was wrong.) She can get away with saying extreme things, because there’s zero risk for her. She has no actual power to act on what she says, and she knows her voter base will eat it up. That would change if she were to make a serious bid for the presidency, and I think like every politician she would compromise her “values” for more power in an instant.