After beginning to quietly hold volunteer-led meetings this fall to mobilize voters around a push for US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run for president in 2028, a new political organization officially launched Monday with the message that Americans around the country are “Ready for AOC.”

“AOC is the only candidate who can lead the working-class movement to fight the oligarchy and transform America,” said Ready for AOC in its inaugural social media post.

But to encourage the New York Democrat to launch a bid, which she has said she is considering while also weighing a potential run to unseat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in 2028, the group aims to enlist 10,000 people across the country who believe a presidential run is the direction she must go in following a wave of progressive victories in the midterm elections last week.

Those community leaders would be tasked with gathering at least 1 million signatures from voters pledging to support Ocasio-Cortez’s run, talking to others about their support, and volunteering for a presidential campaign for the congresswoman, including by phone-banking and canvassing.

“The goal is to build the infrastructure of a grassroots movement in the case that she decides to run, but also to demonstrate to her that, ‘Look, there is a movement behind you ready to power you to victory should you choose to run for president,’” Ravi Sahai, a spokesperson for the group, told The New York Times.

Ready for AOC has already recruited more than 500 local political leaders and labor organizers in 35 states to begin gathering signatures.

Ocasio-Cortez has said she would consider whether to run for president or Senate, if she will launch a bid for another public office at all, after the midterm elections.

Progressives across the country have taken last week’s election outcome as a clear signal that Americans are demanding that the Democratic Party fight President Donald Trump’s MAGA agenda not only by holding his administration to account for its illegal war in Iran, violent mass deportation operations, and other alleged lawbreaking, but also by pushing for far-reaching legislation to secure government-run universal healthcare, a wealth tax on billionaires, and other bold and broadly popular policies.

Ocasio-Cortez campaigned on behalf of former Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon, a democratic socialist who came within two percentage points of winning her election after being vastly outspent in Trump’s home state, and Sens.-elect Abdul El-Sayed (D-Mich.) and Troy Jackson (D-Maine), who centered Medicare for All in their campaigns.

Even candidates who didn’t hold rallies alongside Ocasio-Cortez and progressive leader Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) addressed audiences with rhetoric and promises that would not have been out of place on Sanders’ presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020.

“We know the status quo isn’t working, and that America is hungry for a different kind of candidate. A candidate who will represent the needs of the working class instead of Big Tech billionaires. A candidate who won’t fold under pressure. A candidate who is ready to deliver for the many, not the few,” reads the Ready for AOC website. “The lesser of two evils won’t deliver the landslide victory we need to pull our country back from the brink, but AOC can.”

Over the past two years, Ocasio-Cortez has joined Sanders at rallies as part of his Fighting Oligarchy Tour, speaking to large crowds in rural Colorado, Utah, and Montana about the push for Medicare for All, the need to stop billionaires from pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into elections, and the demand for a “fair economy for working people."

Allies of Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), another progressive lawmaker, have also formed a committee to urge him to launch a presidential run. California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, who recently angered economic justice advocates by opposing the state’s proposed wealth tax, and Gov. JB Pritzker (D-Ill.) are among the leaders who are thought to be likely contenders.

In a poll regarding a hypothetical 2028 race taken last December by The Argument/Verasight, Ocasio-Cortez led Vice President JD Vance, widely considered to be the heir to Trump’s far-right MAGA movement, 51%-49%.

At the “house meetings” it’s already begun holding, Ready for AOC’s organizers have hosted groups of 10-20 friends and neighbors to rally support for the congresswoman.

“We believe AOC can build the coalition this moment needs, ignite the spirit of a grassroots movement, and deliver on the promises others have failed to realize,” said Ready for AOC. “We believe that together, the many can defeat the monied interests, and that a better world is possible.”

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