Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., responded to a poll suggesting a narrow 2028 presidential race between her and Vice President JD Vance by asserting she would decisively defeat him. The poll, conducted by The Argument and Verasight from December 5-11, showed Ocasio-Cortez leading Vance 51% to 49%, with a margin of error of ±2.7 percentage points.
When shown the poll, Ocasio-Cortez dismissed the results as premature, saying, “These polls like three years out — they are what they are.” She added, “But let the record show I would stomp him. I would stomp him!”
While the 2028 election remains far off, the comments sparked attention, with Ocasio-Cortez’s high profile on the left and Vance’s prominence in conservative politics. Both figures have become polarizing figures within their respective parties, with Ocasio-Cortez also recognized for her social media influence.
Ocasio-Cortez highlights poll showing her beating Vance in 2028
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who is increasingly seen as a potential Democratic candidate for president in 2028, on Wednesday highlighted a poll showing her beating Vice President Vance in a hypothetical match-up.
The poll from The Argument/Verasight asked respondents what their voting preference would be if Vance and Ocasio-Cortez were the candidates in the 2028 race, and 51 percent backed the New York Democrat while 49 percent backed the Ohio Republican.
“Bloop!” Ocasio-Cortez responded to the poll on the social platform X.
Both Ocasio-Cortez and Vance have had their names floated for the 2028 presidential race, which will be the first post-Trump-era race after President Trump reaches his constitutional limit for holding the office.
The two millennial politicians have had meteoric rises within their parties, gaining a rapid amount of national attention and power within the last decade.
Another recent poll found Ocasio-Cortez being at the front of the pack among younger Democrats for a hypothetical 2028 presidential primary. The Yale Youth Poll found the New York Democrat with a lead in the double digits over former Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other possible candidates.
Ocasio-Cortez also recently drew massive crowds throughout the U.S. on a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
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The Argument/Verasight poll took place from Dec. 5 to 11, featuring 1,521 registered voters and 2.5 percentage points as its margin of error.
The Hill has reached out to Vance’s office for comment.
AOC Answers JD Vance 2028 Matchup Question With 4 Stomping Words
The congresswoman reacted to a new poll with a blunt prediction about a hypothetical race against the vice president.
By Lee Moran
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) pulled no punches on Wednesday when she was asked if she thought she could defeat Vice President JD Vance (R) in the 2028 presidential election.
A new poll that put Ocasio-Cortez slightly ahead of Donald Trump’s No. 2 prompted Pablo Manríquez, the editor of Migrant Insider, to ask her: “Do you think you could beat JD Vance in a head-to-head race for president, as polling suggests, in 2028?”
Ocasio-Cortez first laughed at the question and urged caution on surveys for events so far in the future: “Listen, these polls, like, three years out, are, you know, they are what they are.”
Then she continued: “But let the record show, I would stomp him.”
The congresswoman said, for added effect, laughing and walking off to a waiting car: “I would stomp him.”
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Also on Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez shared on X, formerly Twitter, the results of a Verasight poll, which showed her leading Vance by 51% to 49% in a hypothetical 2028 matchup.
The lawmaker simply captioned the post: “Bloop!”
According to RealClearPolitics’ average of multiple polls, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is currently polling as the favorite — with 24.6% — to secure the nomination to become the Democratic 2028 presidential nominee.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost the 2024 election against Trump, is second with 22.2%. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is third with 11.2%. Ocasio-Cortez is fourth with 8%.
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For the GOP, Vance is streets ahead with 51.2%, Trump scion Donald Trump Jr. has 10% and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is third with 9.6%.
AOC Jokes She’d ‘Stomp’ JD Vance in a 2028 Presidential Matchup After Poll Suggests She Could Beat Him
The congresswoman laughed when asked about her reaction to a poll showing she could win against Vance in a presidential race
By
Greta Bjornson is a staff editor at PEOPLE covering current events. She previously led the news team at Decider.
Updated on December 18, 2025 01:23PM EST
NEED TO KNOW
- AOC seemed to support a hypothetical 2028 poll showing that she would beat Vice President JD Vance if both ran for president
- The congresswoman told a reporter, “I would stomp him” when asked if she thought she could win against Vance in a presidential matchup
- A poll from Verasight shows AOC with a 51%-49% lead over Vance in a hypothetical 2028 race
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez confidently proclaimed that she could win against Vice President JD Vance if the two went head-to-head at the 2028 presidential polls.
AOC, 36, was asked by a reporter on Wednesday, Dec. 17, if she thought she could beat Vance, 41, who is widely considered to be an early contender for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination.
The Democratic congresswoman laughed before replying, “Listen, these polls, like three years out, are, you know, they are what they are. But let the record show: I would stomp him. I would stomp him!”
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Earlier in the day, AOC retweeted a poll from The Argument/Verasight showing she had a 51%-49% lead over Vance in a hypothetical 2028 matchup. She posted the results with the comment, “Bloop!”
When asked by The Independent why she re-posted the poll, AOC said, “Because JD Vance is a goober, man.”
AOC has been mentioned as a possible 2028 pick for Democratic presidential nominee. In September, Axios reported that sources said the New York congresswoman and her team were “positioning her to run for president or the U.S. Senate” in the 2028 election.
If she were to run for Senate that year, she would be challenging longtime New York politician and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Axios noted that AOC has campaigned nationwide during the last year, and teamed up with left-wing icon Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has twice campaigned for president.
One of Sanders’ longtime aides, Ari Rabin-Havt, told the outlet in September that AOC has “a supporter base that, in many ways, has a larger potential width than Bernie’s.” He added, “It would be the height of arrogance to assume she couldn’t win the 2028 nomination.”
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Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has frequently floated the idea of pursuing a third term, but his chief of staff Susie Wiles insisted in her now-infamous Vanity Fair interview series that the president, 79, is not serious about trying to run again in 2028.
“He sure is having fun with it,” Wiles told the outlet, noting that Trump knows it’s “driving people crazy,“ which she said is why he often brings it up. Wiles also claimed that Trump himself has acknowledged that the 22nd Amendment bars a president from serving more than two terms.
The sameVanity Fair story noted Trump’s suggestion of Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio teaming up for a 2028 run. Rubio hinted at Vance’s possible future as their party’s presidential nominee to the magazine, telling Vanity Fair, “If JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him.”
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Politico reported in November that Rubio had expressed support for Vance’s hypothetical 2028 presidential run and predicted that the VP would be the nominee if he ran for president that year.
“He will do anything he can just to support the vice president in that effort,” a source close to Rubio told the outlet.
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Vance hinted at his own 2028 ambitions in a Nov. 13 interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, but said he was focused on the present.
“I would say that I’ve thought about what that moment might look like after the midterm elections, sure, but I also, whenever I think about that, I try to put it out of my head and remind myself the American people elected me to do a job right now. And my job is to do it,” Vance said.
But the vice president did say he would discuss a potential run with Trump after the midterms, telling Hannity, “After that I’m going to sit down with the president of the United States and talk to him about it. If we do a good job, the politics will take care of itself. If we do a terrible job, the politics will take care of itself in the other direction, so I’m just going to focus on the job that I have.”
