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But U.S Rep.. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Yorktown High School graduate who quickly rose to political stardom last year with her upset victory over incumbent Joe Crowley is now a much-sought-after endorser.
The fact that a 29-year-old freshman House member is being courted by at least two leading presidential candidates -- U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren -- underscores the dynamics of the primary election season. Both senators are more than twice as old as with many more years of congressional experience.
According to multiple news reports, Ocasio-Cortez and Warren, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, recently recorded a video critical of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. As the video session wrapped up, Ocasio-Cortez and Warren bantered about the final episode of "Game of Thrones." Their dialogue chastising the HBO's series finale went viral on Twitter, drawing nearly 2 million views.
Their other appearances together, whether it's on Capitol Hill, at press conferences or out-to-lunch together, have raised eyebrows.
That's because supporters of Sanders, a Vermont senator, and former Vice President Joe Biden -- the Democratic Party frontrunner -- are starting to wonder if Ocasio-Cortez might ultimately endorse Warren in the race for the 2020 presidential nomination.
Even so, the congresswoman who represents the Bronx and Queens is more closely aligned politically with Sanders, a fellow progressive socialist. Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Sanders in his 2016 bid for president. Sanders, the top leftist challenger to Biden, once held a wide lead over Warren, but the margin has narrowed, according to recent public-opinion polls.
Ocasio-Cortez told CNN that she doesn't expect to make a campaign endorsement in the crowded Democratic 2020 field for a while. But she singled out Warren and Sanders as her early favorites.
"What I would like to see in a presidential candidate is one that has a coherent worldview and logic from which all these policy proposals are coming forward," Ocasio-Cortez told CNN. "I think Sen. Sanders has that. I also think Sen. Warren has that."
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