Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been touring upstate New York in what Axios describes as a test run for a possible Senate bid.

The trip through Buffalo and Ithaca was officially aimed at boosting Democratic turnout for the midterms. But Axios reports it doubled as a way to measure her appeal far from her political base in Queens and the Bronx, as she weighs a 2028 run for the Senate or the White House.

In Buffalo, she met privately with Mayor Sean Ryan and held a press conference with him, before kicking off a voter-turnout operation that could help her gather data on voters outside New York City. “I want to be very forthright about our intentions here, which is to transform the state of New York,” she told activists.

Ocasio-Cortez has declined to rule out challenging Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer for his seat in 2028. But reporting suggests some Democrats in competitive races are keeping their distance as they face swing voters in November.