New Poll shows Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rubio are the top two presidential candidates for 2028
A new poll has found that the leading choices for the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries and the public opinion seems to have shifted from a year ago. According to the May 12 poll, released by Atlas Intel, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), D-N.Y., is now the leading contender among Democrats, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio was the top choice for a majority of Republicans. While none of them have been officially confirmed, they haven't been dismissed either.
In the latest 2028 Democratic presidential primary poll conducted between May 4 and May 7 with a total of 2,069 U.S. adults, Ocasio-Cortez surged past the other Democratic leaders to the top spot, with 26% of Democratic voters saying they would back her presidential bid. She was followed closely by former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who occupied the second and third spots, respectively. The same poll last year showed Buttigieg was leading the race with Ocasio-Cortez in second place, followed by former presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
On the Republican side, Rubio led the list of potential candidates with a whopping 45.4% of primary voters in the poll backing his presidential bid. Behind were Vice President JD Vance and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a distant second and third, respectively. Last year, it was Vance who led the poll with about 37.3% of the Republican voters choosing the vice president to be the top candidate, while Rubio was at second with about 18.7% of the poll takers backing his bid, nearly half the number of Vance's backers. Meanwhile, only 0.4% backed the unlikely bid of President Donald Trump.
As of now, neither the Democratic Party nor the GOP has settled on the presidential bids. Trump has explicitly refused to choose between Rubio and Vance to succeed him in 2028, but he has indicated that it could be either of the two. During a White House event on May 11, the President floated Vance and Rubio as a "dream team" ticket for the 2028 presidential election. At the dinner with law enforcement officers to honor National Police Week, Trump said, "I do believe that's a dream team. But these are minor details. That does not mean you have my endorsement under any circumstances. But you know, I think it sounds like presidential candidate and vice presidential candidate."
On the other hand, Ocasio-Cortez hasn't denied the prospect of her running for the ticket either. Last week, while speaking with Democratic strategist David Axelrod at the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics, the New York congresswoman answered a question about potentially running for higher office.
"They assume that my ambition is a title or a seat, and my ambition is way bigger than that. My ambition is to change this country," she said in a video posted by one of the university's social media handles. "Presidents come and go. But single-payer healthcare is forever, a living wage is forever, workers' rights are forever, women's rights, all of that," she added.
