Democrats in some of this year's most critical congressional battlegrounds are sending a clear message to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: We don't want you to campaign for us.

Why it matters: If they continue, the snubs could hurt AOC's standing as a potential contender in the 2028 Democratic presidential primary, when many voters will prioritize electability.

• Ocasio-Cortez and her allies argue that her unapologetic advocacy for big progressive policies like Medicare for All would make candidates like her more electable than moderate liberals, but many Democrats in tight races this fall have disagreed.
• 🛑 She was welcomed by several Democrats in competitive primary races, but now some of those candidates have distanced themselves as they've moved to the center to take on Republicans in the Nov. 3 election.

🔎 Zoom in: Sam Forstag, a progressive House candidate in Montana who rallied with AOC in May en route to winning the Democratic primary, suggested he doesn't want her to campaign for him in the conservative state for the general election.

• "I don't intend to be having a lot of folks from out of state campaigning with me over these next 40 days," he told Axios when asked about AOC stumping for him.
• Forstag has scrubbed Ocasio-Cortez's endorsement from his campaign's website.

Driving the news: Some Democrats in other close races have explicitly asked Ocasio-Cortez's team to stay away, party officials told Axios.

• 📉 "The polling is atrocious for her," said a senior Democratic strategist working in a key swing district. "She's a lightning rod."

AOC doesn't always tell national media about her events in advance, so we asked her team whether she's campaigned in person for any of the Democrats' top House or Senate candidates this cycle. They didn't point us to any.

• "Call us on Nov. 3," said her chief of staff, Mike Casca, suggesting she may do more events before Election Day.

Zoom out: In June, CNN reported that AOC's aides were "putting together a fall schedule meant to beta-test her appeal beyond a base that adores her."

• So far, that hasn't happened nationally.

In contrast, several of AOC's potential 2028 rivals for president — including former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel — have been welcomed by Democratic candidates in competitive districts and states during the past month.

• Even former Vice President Kamala Harris — whose help has been resisted by some battleground candidates — has been welcomed by others.
• Harris was in Michigan with left-wing Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed last week and plans to campaign for statewide candidates in Georgia and Nevada.

👀 The intrigue: In the final weeks of the Senate Democratic primary last month in Michigan — a key presidential swing state — El-Sayed had AOC campaign with him.

• He and his allies spent almost $1 million in TV ads featuring her, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.
• But since winning the Democratic nomination, El-Sayed has spent almost nothing on ads featuring AOC.
• El-Sayed's campaign said they'd welcome Ocasio-Cortez back in the coming weeks. "There are a lot of Michiganders who can't wait to have AOC back in town," a spokesperson told us.

AOC did launch a campaign swing this week throughout New York with stops in Buffalo and Ithaca, but she's not campaigning in one of the country's most competitive House districts — the 17th District in the lower Hudson Valley.

• Cait Conley, a former Army officer and national security official in the Biden administration, told CNN this month that she wouldn't campaign with AOC.

🗣️ What they're saying: We asked Ocasio-Cortez what she thinks of Republicans using her name in a new ad to try to hurt Conley.

• "I invite them to spend even more money … because they're just setting it on fire," Ocasio-Cortez said, arguing that the GOP has been running the same anti-AOC playbook since she first was elected to Congress in 2018.

Read more.

— Alex Thompson, Holly Otterbein

BUFFALO, N.Y. — AOC's flirtation with a 2028 Senate bid is getting real — more real than the presidential buzz around her might suggest.

• 🏃🏼‍♀️ She's barnstorming through upstate New York, meeting with local officials and kicking off a voter turnout program that could help her collect valuable data for a possible Senate campaign.

Why it matters: Whether she runs for Senate or the White House is one of the biggest questions hanging over the 2028 Democratic presidential primary.

🔬 Zoom in: Her swing through Buffalo and Ithaca the last few days was officially aimed at boosting Democratic turnout in the midterms. But it doubled as a way to test AOC's appeal far from her home base of Queens and the Bronx, and build relationships with locals.

• In Buffalo, she met privately with Mayor Sean Ryan, then held an impromptu press conference with him, generating coverage of the duo on local TV news.
• She and her team later kicked off a training session aimed at getting inactive voters to the polls, an operation that could help them gather information about the electorate outside New York City.
• "I want to be very forthright about our intentions here, which is to transform the state of New York," Ocasio-Cortez told activists at the event in a Buffalo arts center.
• In Ithaca, she appeared at an apple festival with Rep. Josh Riley (D-N.Y.) and today was scheduled to headline a "Students vs. Billionaires" town hall. It's friendly terrain: The city is home to several democratic socialist elected officials, and Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

🤔 The intrigue: AOC says she's genuinely undecided on whether to run for the White House or Senate. Her recent activities upstate suggested that wasn't a head fake.

• Ryan said Ocasio-Cortez has been talking with state officials about how help communities beyond New York City.
• Meanwhile, some influential Democrats in early presidential primary states have told us they haven't yet heard from AOC.

Many political insiders believe that if Ocasio-Cortez were to run for an open Senate seat, she'd clear the Democratic field.

• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who's in his fifth term, hasn't said whether he'll run for reelection.

Yes, but: Ocasio-Cortez also has taken several steps that could point toward a presidential run. She's toured the country, moderated her stance on some cultural issues, and opened up about her egg-freezing journey.

• She recently told the New York Times she'll consider whether to run for president after the midterms.

Between the lines: One exchange we had with Ocasio-Cortez offered a window into how she is approaching her decision.

• We asked her how she's thinking about the future of the progressive movement as she weighs a White House run. In the last two open Democratic presidential primaries, there has been a clear progressive standard-bearer, and many on the left think she's their only hope for 2028.
• "The movement is so much bigger than any one person," she told us.

Read more.

— Holly Otterbein

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

• 🤔 Ocasio-Cortez talked openly about running for president or the Senate in 2028 in an interview with The New York Times' Shane Goldmacher. "There's an argument that some make that this is a very unique political window and, oftentimes in politics, you do only get one shot," she said. "… Life doesn't wait for you to be ready for things. Sometimes life just makes things ready for you."
• 🇺🇳 California Gov. Gavin Newsom made the rounds in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly, where some foreign officials treated him as a president-in-waiting. Newsom met and signed a climate agreement with the prime minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, who according to reports snubbed President Trump's reception.
• 👏 Besides campaigning for El-Sayed in Michigan this week, Harris went to an event held by the Detroit Branch of the NAACP and got a standing ovation from the crowd when she was asked about running in 2028, the Michigan Chronicle's Sam Robinson reported.
• Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said on "CBS Mornings" that he was diagnosed with diabetes two years ago, and since then has lost 80 pounds using a GLP-1 drug. Pritzker previously had dodged questions about whether he used the drug in his recent weight loss.
• Democratic megadonor Alex Soros posted about meeting Pritzker in New York City this week.
• Buttigieg told Meidas Touch that the Biden administration made mistakes dealing with the southern border. "Democrats were slow to acknowledge that this was a problem. I'll admit that I did not understand the proportions of the problem at first," he said.
• 🥯 In a video with food influencer Jeremy Jacobowitz, Buttigieg also revealed his go-to bagel order: sesame bagel with lox, scallion cream cheese (or chive) and capers. Jacobowitz judged the order an 8.9.
• 🦀 Maryland Gov. Wes Moore put out an AI framework that would focus on regulating its use in housing, gambling, lending, in the workplace, and elsewhere. Read it here.
• 🤖 Kelly introduced AI legislation that would focus on making large tech companies pay to help workers displaced by the technology.
• Emanuel jabbed at AOC and Sen. Bernie Sanders in a New York Times profile by Shane Goldmacher. "Some people want to do oligarchy tours. I want to do majority tours. That's what I'm doing with my time," he said.
• Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear dodged questions from CNN's Jake Tapper about committing money to the Texas governor's race (he also mistakenly said Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs was running for reelection in Ohio).
• California Rep. Ro Khanna said on "Meet the Press" that Democrats should hold impeachment investigations if they win the House in November, and that it wouldn't be a mistake to impeach Trump a third time.