New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is laughing off "Woke 1." But she's carrying baggage from the 2020 era of cultural progressivism that some Democrats say is an obstacle to a future presidential run.

Why it matters: AOC's pivot to the cultural center — which she began to roll out last week in a high-profile ABC interview by saying, "Woke 1 was crazy" — is potential damage control for her past remarks about law enforcement, immigration and a range of social issues.

• Ocasio-Cortez told ABC that the left's so-called excesses of that period were partly the result of the COVID pandemic and lockdowns.

🤨 But she made some of her most controversial remarks before the pandemic hit the U.S. in 2020.

• "This is really going to be something that handicaps her, especially with demographics that are culturally more moderate," former Biden White House adviser Yemisi Egbewole told us, pointing to Black voters in the South who have a large voice in Democratic presidential primaries.

👮 Flashback: In the early 2020s, Ocasio-Cortez was one of the most aggressive and well-known advocates for "defunding" the police — an idea that polls have long shown is not popular.

• In the summer of 2020, she blasted New York City's government for proposing to cut its police department by only $1 billion.
• "Defunding police means defunding police," she said then. "It does not mean budget tricks or funny math." She added: "The fight to defund policing continues."

In 2019, AOC posted on social media that "we need to have a real conversation about decarceration & prison abolition in this country."

• She said that year that some marginalized groups "have no choice but to riot."
• And she said at an event in 2021: "I want to abolish our carceral system that's designed to trap Black and brown men."

On immigration, Ocasio-Cortez sponsored a bill in 2021 and 2023 to decriminalize border crossings. Asked by the New Yorker in 2019 if she'd get rid of the Department of Homeland Security, she said: "I think so. I think so."

• She repeatedly used language en vogue in elite liberal circles, such as the gender-neutral term "Latinx" in the early 2020s — a word that surveys have found isn't used by the vast majority of U.S. Latinos.
• She used the phrase "menstruating person" in 2021 to be inclusive of the transgender community.

🔭 Zoom out: AOC now has shifted her rhetoric but hasn't detailed where she currently stands on many of these politically fraught topics, or what made her change her views on "Woke 1."

• Ocasio-Cortez's spokespeople didn't respond to several questions, including what her position is now on defunding the police, whether she supports decriminalizing the border, and if she thinks rioting is sometimes justified.

📺 In her ABC interview, Ocasio-Cortez did say that she doesn't support some Democratic Socialists of America's proposals such as abolishing police and prisons, defunding the Department of Defense and granting amnesty to all immigrants.

The other side: Some Republicans argue that AOC would be a formidable presidential candidate despite her controversial positions in the past.

• "To me, she's incredibly dangerous," said GOP pollster Brent Buchanan, noting that AOC has high name recognition and an impressive favorability rating for a nationally known figure who's faced years of attacks.
• He shared his polling that shows 39% of voters view Ocasio-Cortez favorably, compared with 42% who see her unfavorably — a rating similar to Secretary of State Marco Rubio's.
• Ocasio-Cortez's recent cultural moderation "tells me she's a good politician, because she's doing it now instead of next year," Buchanan added.

🙌 Democratic strategist James Carville likewise praised AOC, telling us that "it's always been evident that she's more talented than the rest of them put together," a reference to others in the "Squad" of House progressives.

• Carville said AOC doesn't need to overexplain her changes of heart: "She can say 'I'm grown,' and people understand that."

Read more.

— Holly Otterbein, Alex Thompson

A look at what potential 2028 Democratic presidential contenders are up to:

• 📆 The Democratic National Committee ratified its 2028 presidential primary calendar beginning with South Carolina on Jan. 22. New Hampshire and Iowa could still go rogue and jump ahead of South Carolina, risking possible penalties from the DNC.
• 🛩️ Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin will be the keynote speaker tomorrow at the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers' conference in Chicago. It's her third major speech this year at a building trades union event.
• California Gov. Gavin Newsom campaigned for Democrats in Michigan and sat down with the state's Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for his podcast to talk about their final months in office. (Whitmer also confessed she binged several seasons of "Dexter" in the aftermath of President Trump's 2024 victory.)
• 🌶️ New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker stormed through New Mexico, which is set to be the fourth contest in the 2028 primary. "I'm obsessed with this primary, and obviously I haven't closed the door to '28," Booker told the Santa Fe New Mexican.
• Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will be a "special guest" for the South Carolina Democratic Party's Spratt Issues Conference on Saturday. He also campaigned in Nevada this week, per the Nevada Independent.
• 🎙️ Sports broadcaster Stephen A. Smith, who has floated his own run for president, blasted most of the potential 2028 candidates on his show. He said Harris "had her shot and she blew it" and that Buttigieg has "zero percent support from the Black community. Why? Because he just doesn't move us."
• Alaska's Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola said she didn't want Harris' endorsement after the ex-VP signed a fundraising appeal for her, the New York Times reported. Harris also appeared on Stacey Abrams' show, "Assembly Required," and has talked about continuing to campaign throughout the South this fall.
• 🤨 The Philadelphia Inquirer dives into Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's shifting tone on data centers, including having "gone from consulting Amazon and the data center industry earlier this year to draft data center incentives, to vowing his own executive actions to curb the projects in communities that oppose them."
• Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised Ocasio-Cortez this week, telling Politico's Jonathan Martin: "I think that she has been so operational, and it's just wonderful. I know it's a joy to work with her, and I think most [House] members think that."
• Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel argued on X that in recent primaries "the DSA and the far left get the press while the pragmatists notch key wins: WI, MO, HI, VA.… Each wing of the party knows the game's rigged for insiders at the expense of those trying to stretch every paycheck; we just disagree on the fix."
• Emanuel also had a lengthy sit-down with Robert Costa for "CBS News Sunday Morning."
• 🚔 Maryland Gov. Wes Moore avoided the debate over "Woke 1" and told CNN's Kaitlan Collins: "I'm going to be honest, I don't know what 'Woke 1' is. But I can tell you how I lead in Maryland," noting his investments in law enforcement.
• ‼️ Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly said reports of sailors trying to jump off the USS Abraham Lincoln after a nine-month deployment are "disturbing."

A long time ago (2008) on a campus not that far away (Georgetown), future Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff enjoyed dressing up as "Star Wars" characters with his friends in the Georgetown Chimes, the campus' a cappella group.

• 📼 And yes, there's video.
• In one video — dubbed "Star Wars: Episode 1946 'The Hoyas Strike Back'" — the group tweaks the university's strict drinking policy, with young Ossoff playing Han Solo.
• "I'm Han Solo, captain of the Millennium Falcon," he earnestly tells a Luke Skywalker stand-in, to the throaty approval of a Chewbacca character who looks like a living bathmat.
• 🍺 "She's the baby that ran four [beer] kegs by DOP [the university's public safety unit] in under 3 parsecs," Ossoff/Solo says of his vehicle.

• The video later shows Ossoff and friends loading into something like a golf cart labeled the Millennium Falcon, and driving to a dorm.
• Upon arrival, he and his comrades are awarded medals — in the form of cans of Busch Light.