CA-11: AOC Declines to Endorse Former Chief of Staff Saikat Chakrabarti In Awkward Video

Maybe this was a strategic decision on her part, but Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez clearly declined to offer an endorsement of Saikat Chakrabarti when asked by a reporter this week about his primary race in SF.

This clip, from reporter Julian Andreone, has gone a bit viral and has over half a million views on Xitter. And it seems to be sort of awkward for everyone, with AOC offering, essentially, a word salad that amounts to "I'm very busy" or "I'm not sure I should be endorsing anyone anywhere" instead of simply throwing her support behind Chakrabarti, who presumably had a fairly close relationship to her.

The non-answer includes the phrases, "I think for me overall, it’s more about, I’m trying to think about the role that I am trying to play more broadly in these things," and "there is this kind of moment where — and not just with this race but with any race, once you go in then it's like 'what about this?' and 'what about this one?'"

Chakrabarti's ads have certainly tried to leverage his ties to AOC and his role in writing the Green New Deal in his campaign ads, and this is his first ever political campaign as a candidate, so one would think AOC would want to give him a leg up?



https://sfist.com/2026/04/17/aoc-appears-to-decline-to-endorse-former-chief-of-staff-saikat/