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# AOC's Election Day Memo Touts $38 Million and Scripts Allies' Answers on 2028
- URL: https://foxwatershed.com/aocs-election-day-memo-touts-38-million-and-scripts-allies-answers-on-2028/
- Published: 2026-11-03T21:30:43.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-03T21:30:43.000Z
- Description: Ocasio-Cortez's five-page memo credits small donors and race-changing endorsements, then tells allies how to answer questions about her next run. Some swing-seat Democrats kept their distance this fall.
- Author: Ethan Rouse

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's campaign [released a five-page memo Tuesday](https://www.washingtonsun.com/campaigns/midterm-elections-results-live-updates?ref=foxwatershed.com) with voters still at the polls, arguing that two years of rallies, endorsements and small-dollar fundraising have made the New York Democrat one of the country's most effective voices for working-class Americans. It ends by telling allies what to say when they're asked what she runs for next.

The memo, [titled "How AOC Wins in 2026,"](https://cdn.cosmicjs.com/68de86c0-d79c-11f1-b4e6-af8abca1fda0-MEMO%5F-How-AOC-Wins-in-2026.pdf?ref=foxwatershed.com) warns that allies may be asked whether she should run for president, run for Senate in New York or stay in the House. Its [recommended answer](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/4789514/aoc-memo-publicize-midterm-influence-2028/?ref=foxwatershed.com) is that she'll "look for ways to do the most good for the most people." The passage names those offices and commits to none of them, and Fox News [described the document](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/aoc-campaign-memo-frames-growth-from-progressive-firebrand-national-democratic-party-force?ref=foxwatershed.com) as making no mention of a potential run. She [told The New York Times in September](https://queenseagle.com/all/2026/11/3/wherever-aoc-goes-next-queens-voters-say-theyll-follow?ref=foxwatershed.com) she'd decide her next move after the general election.

The fundraising total holds up. The memo [cites more than 2 million contributions](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/aoc-campaign-memo-frames-growth-from-progressive-firebrand-national-democratic-party-force?ref=foxwatershed.com) totaling $38 million, an average of $17.56, and [Federal Election Commission records](https://www.fec.gov/data/candidate/H8NY15148/?ref=foxwatershed.com) show $38.03 million in receipts for her campaign from January 2025 through Oct. 14\. Those small checks arrived in what [the Washington Sun calls](https://www.washingtonsun.com/campaigns/midterm-elections-results-live-updates?ref=foxwatershed.com) the most expensive election in history, with Trump ally Elon Musk spending upward of $440 million.

The memo says more than $3 million went to other Democrats and state parties. Her recent transfers include [$1 million](https://queenseagle.com/all/2026/11/3/wherever-aoc-goes-next-queens-voters-say-theyll-follow?ref=foxwatershed.com) to the Michigan Democratic Party and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in support of Abdul El-Sayed's Senate run, and on Oct. 30 she [moved $150,000 apiece](https://www.axios.com/2026/10/30/aoc-money-senate-campaigns?ref=foxwatershed.com) to help Troy Jackson in Maine, Mary Peltola in Alaska and Angie Nixon in Florida.

Its broader claim is harder to square with the fall campaign. The memo says candidates in rural districts and battleground seats ["see her as an asset"](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/aoc-campaign-memo-frames-growth-from-progressive-firebrand-national-democratic-party-force?ref=foxwatershed.com) and holds up El-Sayed and Montana House nominee Sam Forstag as proof, crediting her with helping Forstag erase a polling deficit after a Missoula rally with Sen. Bernie Sanders. Axios [reported in September](https://www.axios.com/2026/09/27/swing-state-democrats-snub-aoc-midterms?ref=foxwatershed.com) that Forstag had scrubbed her endorsement from his campaign website and that Democrats in some close races had asked her team to stay away.

Others wanted her there. Jackson and Nixon [invited her to campaign with them](https://www.axios.com/2026/10/30/aoc-money-senate-campaigns?ref=foxwatershed.com), and [the Associated Press reported](https://www.lanacion.com.ar/usa/aoc-can-draw-a-crowd-the-midterms-will-test-whether-her-politics-can-win-before-2028-nid24102026/?ref=foxwatershed.com) she packed rooms in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, speaking in Iron Mountain, near the Wisconsin line, in a county President Donald Trump won by more than 30 points. Former Rep. Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican, told the AP she'd carry New York and California but not the other states Democrats need to reach 270 electoral votes.

Ocasio-Cortez is on the ballot herself Tuesday, [facing Republican Diamant Hysenaj](https://queenseagle.com/all/2026/11/3/wherever-aoc-goes-next-queens-voters-say-theyll-follow?ref=foxwatershed.com) in New York's 14th District. [The AP called](https://www.lanacion.com.ar/usa/aoc-can-draw-a-crowd-the-midterms-will-test-whether-her-politics-can-win-before-2028-nid24102026/?ref=foxwatershed.com) her case that progressive politics can win beyond the Democratic base largely untested and said that brand is on the line in the Senate races in Maine, where Jackson is challenging Republican Sen. Susan Collins, and Michigan, where El-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers. Rep. Haley Stevens, the Democrat El-Sayed beat in the primary, [endorsed Rogers on Sunday](https://www.washingtonsun.com/campaigns/midterm-elections-results-live-updates?ref=foxwatershed.com).