Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questions whether a Latina can be elected president

New York (CNN) — New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is giving herself a deadline.

The 36-year-old ascendant leader of the Democratic Party’s progressive movement will decide whether to run for president in 2028 after the upcoming midterm elections.

In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, Ocasio-Cortez said she is weighing everything from gender to ethnicity and her age. She’s also cognizant that no woman has been elected president and that the decision could shape her personal life.

“Pretty candidly, I think about my identity,” Ocasio-Cortez told the Times. “I’m not naïve to the fact that we are living under a very regressive administration, and I happen to be a woman, and I, you know, happen to be Latina. And I think that there’s a lot of conversation about electability, and I don’t kind of shy away from those realities.”

A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez declined to provide additional information to CNN about her future plans, which have been the subject of much speculation as she weighs her next political move.

Ocasio-Cortez, who was born to Puerto Rican parents in the Bronx and worked as a bartender before running for Congress, is in part considering how such a monumental decision could shape her personal life, she told the Times.

She has often shared about her life on social media, most recently bringing her followers along as she underwent fertility treatment to freeze her eggs, revealing that her long-term relationship since before she’d been in office had also come to an end.

Her posts generated significant interest online, igniting both conversations about gender and women’s careers as well as drawing some criticism.

Ocasio-Cortez, who rose to political stardom and national prominence after ousting 10-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley in a 2018 primary, isn’t only considering a presidential run.

The four-term congresswoman could run for reelection and continue representing parts of the Bronx and Queens as she remains popular at home. She could also choose to run for the Senate seat currently held by Chuck Schumer, who turns 76 in November and who is up for reelection in 2028.

She is also spending time in her home state and has donated $300,000 from her campaign account to help Democrats there, her campaign confirmed to CNN, adding she would be traveling across the state to help boost turnout in the midterms. She is planning campaign stops starting in Buffalo on Thursday, Syracuse and Ithaca — cities far from her home district in Queens and the Bronx that are also home to pockets of progressive voters.

For now, as the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, Ocasio-Cortez said race and gender are top of mind as she considers her future and acknowledged that publicly speaking about both issues can be unpopular in American politics.

She said she empathizes with the “heartbreak” people feel around the losses of the two female Democratic presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris and how they were treated in the aftermath.

“What is very odd about our political culture is that for some reason when you raise it, people just freak out,” Ocasio-Cortez told the Times. “They get so defensive at the mere suggestion that gender could play a role.”

Of her political next move, Ocasio-Cortez acknowledged timing is of the essence.

“There’s an argument that some make that this is a very unique political window and, oftentimes in politics, you do only get one shot,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And you don’t — and just in life in general — life doesn’t wait for you to be ready for things. Sometimes life just makes things ready for you.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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