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The 19th News((Side note - 😃 laugh emojis for this post are double other emojis.))U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's potential run for president isn't just a question of timing. In some of her most detailed remarks yet on her plans for higher office, the New York Democrat said she's acutely aware that perceptions around her gender, ethnicity and age must factor into her decision.“This country has never elected a female president. Why are we pretending that this is not a factor?” she told The New York Times in an interview published Tuesday. “That doesn’t make it impossible, but to act as though it’s not a factor in anything ever is really a form of, like, denialism.”The interview comes amid growing speculation that she is planning a run for president in 2028. The Times also said that the 36-year-old congresswoman “did not rule out” campaigning for a Senate seat currently held by Chuck Schumer, 75. She said she’s felt hesitant to address how her identity might factor into a run because doing so can be viewed as unpopular even within her own party, which has put up two women in the last decade for the nomination only to lose to Donald Trump. “What is very odd about our political culture is that for some reason when you raise it, people just freak out,” she said. “They get so defensive at the mere suggestion that gender could play a role.”She continued, saying, “I experience it tremendously — from the right and from the left.”The United States has never had a woman president, and only 28 percent of congressional seats are held by women. While the majority of Americans say they would vote for a woman for president, recent polling also suggests the U.S. electorate has grown more skeptical that a woman could win the presidency. A survey published this month by the Pew Research Center, a non-partisan think tank, found that the share of Americans who say it’s not too likely, or not at all likely, that the U.S. will elect a woman president in their lifetimes grew from 26 percent in 2023 to 37 percent this year.✍️: Jessica Kutz, reporter📸: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images