AOC Isn’t Endorsing Yet, Says Joe Biden Not ‘Locked Down’ With Women

(Bloomberg) -- Outspoken Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she’s not yet endorsing a candidate in the vast Democratic presidential race but did offer praise for Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and a caution on former Vice President Joe Biden.

“I do not see myself endorsing anytime soon,” the first-term New York lawmaker, who is one of the most influential voices on the Democrats’ left flank, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “We haven’t even had our first debates yet. I’m very interested in seeing how things play out.”

She singled out Sanders and Warren for offering policies that “fight for the well-being of working class Americans and all Americans,” such as a $15 minimum hourly wage and expanded access to college. She was lukewarm on Biden, a moderate who leads in several polls, saying she would vote for him if the former vice president were the nominee but that he might not capture the “enthusiasm of voters.”

“We have a very real risk of losing the presidency to Donald Trump if we do not have a presidential candidate that is fighting for true transformational change in the lives of working people,” she said.

Ocasio-Cortez, 29, also suggested Biden, who has faced accusations he made women uncomfortable by how he touched them as well as criticism for his handling of Anita Hill’s allegations against Clarence Thomas during his 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearings, still needed to make progress with female voters.

“It’s just not quite locked down,” she said. “There’s some ways to go.” She said she was “encouraged” that Biden had recently reversed his opposition to blocking federal funding for abortion.

Ocasio-Cortez volunteered for Sanders’s 2016 campaign, but she said the socialist independent has not yet sought her endorsement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Brody in Washington at btenerellabr@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann, Kevin Miller

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.