Democrat Division: AOC Pumps the Brakes on Progressive Primary Challenge to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, declined to offer her support after fellow Democratic socialist Chi Ossé filed paperwork to challenge House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for his seat.
Ossé, a New York City councilman, wants to repeat Zohran Mamdani’s successful insurgent campaign that toppled establishment Democrat Andrew Cuomo, both in the primary and the general election, to become mayor of the Big Apple.
Axios caught up with Ocasio-Cortez at the U.S. Capitol on Monday, and she told the outlet that she was “not aware” of Ossé’s challenge to Jeffries.
“But,” she added, “I certainly don’t think a primary challenge to the leader is a good idea right now.”
Additionally, Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green told Politico “it is not the right moment to launch a primary challenge against Hakeem Jeffries.”
Further, Mamdani also discouraged Ossé from running, telling reporters on Monday, “I believe that there are many ways right here in New York City to both deliver on an affordability agenda and take on the authoritarian administration in the White House.”
Mamdani is reportedly trying to make inroads with establishment Democrats like Jeffries to support his socialist agenda.
“But Ossé, who just announced that he joined the Democratic Socialists of America, defied Mamdani, saying he wants ‘to strike when the iron is hot’ with the energy among grass-roots lefty activists in the Democratic Party ascendant with Mamdani’s election, a source said,” according to the New York Post.
Asked Monday about Ossé’s candidacy and charged with the claim that Democratic leadership has failed to fight effectively against President Donald Trump, Jeffries responded, “Come on in; the water is warm.”
🚨 House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on receiving a primary challenge from Democratic NYC Councilman Chi Ossé: “Come on in, the water is warm.” pic.twitter.com/ORf9WqoPax
— Off The Press (@OffThePress1) November 17, 2025
AOC does not appear to be ready to oust Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer either, though she had some harsh words for him after some Democratic lawmakers voted to end the federal government shutdown.
“We are talking about a coordinated effort of eight senators with the knowledge of Leader Schumer, voting to break with the entire Democratic Party in exchange for nothing,” she told CNN.
“I think that when we talk about this debate about the Democratic Party, it is indeed about the party, writ large, and our ability to fight or not,” she added.
NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo made an interesting argument last week after the eight Democratic senators voted to end the filibuster that had kept the government closed for 43 days.
“I think the Democratic Party, as we know it, is about to end. I think that this is the birth of the new left,” he said.
Cuomo pointed out, “Capitulation on a policy from the majority party in power when the government gets shut down, obviously by the minority, has never happened.”
In other words, the fights that have caused a government shutdown in the past have been between a party that at least held the majority in one chamber of Congress and the White House.
But the Democrats — pushed by the far left — took it to a new level last month when, from a minority position in both the House and Senate and with a Republican in the White House, they demanded $1.5 trillion in health care spending.
Perhaps AOC recognizes that pushing too fast for a socialist takeover of the Democratic Party may make the whole thing implode.
While she was willing to back Mamdani, at least for now, AOC is not ready to topple Jeffries.
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