Did you know San Francisco congressional candidate Saikat Chakrabarti used to work for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?

If you didn’t, God bless you, an entire class of political watchers wishes they had your unsullied ears. That’s because Chakrabarti has repeated his AOC connections, ad nauseam, in campaign ads (opens in new tab), at forums (opens in new tab), and when talking to college students (opens in new tab). Baristas probably call out his order, “Oat milk latte for Saikat, the guy who worked for AOC!”

Chakrabarti’s AOC connection is his main claim to fame as a candidate to replace retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi. It’s also a central plank of his argument that he knows Capitol Hill more intimately than his rival candidates, state Sen. Scott Wiener and Supervisor Connie Chan.

It also leads to a natural question — will Ocasio-Cortez endorse him? On Thursday, a reporter from Drop Site News asked her just that. (opens in new tab)Ocasio-Cortez’s answer was the Capitol Hill version of the Mariah Carey “I don’t know her” (opens in new tab) meme.

“For me overall, I’m trying to think about the role I’m trying to play more broadly in these things,” Ocasio-Cortez said (opens in new tab). “We’ve got 435 seats in Congress. There is this kind of moment, not just with this race, once you go in, it’s ‘What about this, what about this, what about this one?’”

She said she has a lean team and wants to think about “how much of myself I’m pouring into this, and how much of myself I want to pour into the task at hand.”

Gone unsaid by Ocasio-Cortez is that Chakrabarti isn’t just any progressive candidate — he was once her right-hand man, serving as her chief of staff for seven months in 2019. It wasn’t a smooth experience, as Chakrabarti drew heat in the news for calling out other members of Congress on Twitter (opens in new tab).

“I left AOC’s office at the end of 2019 after ruffling a few too many feathers in D.C. and moved back to San Francisco,” Chakrabarti told Jacobin magazine (opens in new tab) last year.

Thursday’s Drop Site interview was an awkward political moment — Ocasio-Cortez didn’t even say Chakrabarti’s name.

Klarissa Reynoso, who worked on government oversight in Ocasio-Cortez’s office under Chakrabarti, told The Standard her two former bosses parted on a positive note.

“I know they’re still good friends, and I’m sure she’s supporting him,” Reynoso said. But, she added, perhaps voters over-weight politicians’ endorsements. “What matters is what the community thinks.”

On that topic: Chakrabarti has struggled to gain local endorsements too. Local progressive Democratic organizations have opted to back Chan. He has, however, received more small-dollar donations than his rivals, for anyone counting at home.

Despite the cold shoulder from his former boss, Chakrabarti is waving the progressive flag in the 2026 primary. If elected, he has promised (opens in new tab) to pass the ultra-millionaire tax initially proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, would propose a successor to the Green New Deal that would slash carbon emissions while creating new jobs, and make intentional and repeated wage theft punishable by jail time.

While Ocasio-Cortez didn’t address if she’d endorse Chakrabarti, she did say she is excited by the possibility of more members of Congress emerging from the progressive movement.

“The primary environment we’re seeing is really great. I think progressives have already notched some really impressive victories this early into the primary season,” she said. “I’m looking forward to having a lot of new colleagues in November. It’s been a really lonely road for the first eight years.”