AOC's hide-and-seek strategy with the press (axios.com)

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn't want to meet the press. The progressive lawmaker has sat for just three interviews with national media this year — a fraction of what other potential 2028 candidates for president have done. When she is interviewed it's usually with an ideologically sympathetic outlet or reporter, or is focused on a topic that's politically safe. Why it matters: This distinct approach to the media suggests three things about Ocasio-Cortez and her team's approach as she weighs a run for the White House: 1. She doesn't believe she needs to do interviews the way other potential candidates do to get attention, given the frequent coverage of her and her enormous social media following (9.6 million on Instagram alone). 2. She's naturally cautious as she navigates the national stage, people who have worked with her told Axios. 3. AOC and her team share at least some of the disdain for mainstream — or "corporate" — media that's been building for years on the left, a response to what they see as unfair coverage of Bernie Sanders' presidential campaigns, the war in Gaza and other issues. Democrats who've worked with Ocasio-Cortez's team say they've been surprised by some of her aides' private hostility toward national media. Ocasio-Cortez's three interviews this year have included: 1 podcast interview — roughly 20 minutes with former CNN anchor Don Lemon. 1 print interview with the New York Times' Kellen Browning, to clean up some of AOC's halting answers on foreign policy at the Munich Security Conference in February. 1 TV news interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, after a U.S. citizen was killed in Minneapolis by Trump administration immigration agents. Ocasio-Cortez sat for several interviews in the first months of 2025 — with NPR and Jon Stewart's "The Weekly Show," among others — then largely stopped for the rest of the year. She still engages in quick hallway Q&A's with Capitol Hill reporters, but even there she often gravitates toward progressive journalists such as Pablo Manríquez of MeidasTouch . Ocasio-Cortez's team has been telling people since last fall that The Atlantic's Mark Leibovich has had access to her for a long profile that's yet to be published. Asked about the potential profile, Leibovich replied with a 🤷. Ocasio-Cortez declined to be interviewed for this story. Her chief of staff, Mike Casca, told Axios: "She takes questions multiple times a day from the press. And anyone with a press credential is able to find her in the Capitol and ask her questions." "It's bizarre to me how much disdain national political reporters have for their colleagues in the Capitol Hill press corps." The intrigue: Some Democratic operatives believe Ocasio-Cortez's media game plan has short-term benefits, but could be a mistake in the long run even if she opts to run for Senate in 2028 rather than president. The less a candidate engages with the media, they aren't as practiced and there is more scrutiny when they sit down for an in