AOC is softening her past positions and pulling back from progressive primary fights, which is bad news for the left activists who helped put her in office.

• AOC leads a New Hampshire poll of Democrats for 2028 but laughed off questions about running for president or challenging Chuck Schumer for his Senate seat.
• She now calls the "woke" era crazy and distances herself from defunding police and abolishing prisons, blaming the COVID shutdowns for pushing those ideas.
• She's declining to endorse progressive challengers running against sitting Democrats, saying Congress is a "workplace" and she wants to get along with colleagues.
• Critics say she's throwing former allies under the bus and falsely claiming no one endorsed her in 2018, when groups like Justice Democrats and DSA helped her win.
• The shift reads to supporters as a politician falling in line once in power, echoing the vague, charm-first style of Kamala Harris.

Outlook: Expect AOC to keep tacking toward the center and focusing on the economy ahead of the midterms, frustrating the activist left as speculation about a 2028 run builds.