(Bloomberg) -- Bernie Sanders, weeks after a heart attack that threatened to derail his campaign, is resetting his presidential bid on Saturday with a New York City rally and the endorsement of influential Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The Vermont senator looks to leverage the charismatic 30-year-old lawmaker, who has outsized influence with left-leading and younger voters, as he falls behind Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden ahead of the first Democratic nominating contests.

It will be Sanders’s first campaign appearance since his Oct. 1 heart attack, after which he had two stents inserted into a blocked artery in a Las Vegas hospital.

Ocasio-Cortez, a first-term member of Congress from the Bronx, took the stage in front of a crowd of thousands in Queens.

On a sunny autumn afternoon, Ocasio-Cortez said Sanders had been seminal in her political awakening: “It wasn’t until I heard of a man by the name Bernie Sanders that I began to question and assert and recognize my inherent value as a human being that deserves healthcare, housing & a living wage.”

Next Generation

Her endorsement was announced after Tuesday’s Democratic debate in Ohio, along with that of fellow progressive firebrand, Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Their support, which lets Sanders burnish his appeal with the next generation of voters, is seen as a setback for Warren, another progressive favorite.

Sanders’s heart attack kept him off the trail for two weeks. Coming months after he received seven stitches after cutting his head on a glass shower door, it focused attention on his health and age as primary contests loom in Iowa and New Hampshire. Yet the 78-year-old appeared healthy and energetic at Tuesday’s debate.

Also on hand Saturday was filmmaker Michael Moore, a progressive figure for decades, who portrayed Sanders’s age as an asset. “A 78-year-old knows what a pay raise is,” he said. “A 78-year-old knows what a pension is.”

Analysts, though, say it will take more than a good bill of health and some solid endorsements to turn around his campaign, which now hovers between third and fourth place in national and key state polls.

‘Tide of Support’

The endorsements from Ocasio-Cortez and Omar will grab immediate interest but “won’t stem the tide of support for Elizabeth Warren,” said Michael Gordon, a Democratic strategist who worked for the Clinton and Gore campaign in 1992 and 1996.

Still, Sanders is the money leader in the race, hauling in $25.3 million in the third quarter, giving him the funds to push well into the primaries. A key test comes Nov. 1 in Iowa, when the top candidates will speak at a state Democratic party dinner that often is the point at which support starts to coalesce in the first-in-the-nation caucus state, said Robert Shrum, a former top adviser to Democratic nominees Al Gore and John Kerry.

The backing of Ocasio-Cortez -- known widely as “AOC” -- helps Sanders at a time when he’s begun highlighting differences with long-time friend and ally Warren, whom he recently pointed out has described herself as a “capitalist to her bones.”

Twitter Star

Ocasio-Cortez is a sought-after surrogate with strong social media chops. She has 5.6 million followers on Twitter.

She was a Sanders ally even before she soared to national fame by defeating Democratic Representative Joe Crowley, 10-term lawmaker and member of the Democratic leadership team, in a 2018 primary election. Ocasio-Cortez volunteered on Sanders’s 2016 presidential bid.

Since coming to the House, she and Sanders teamed up on legislation in areas like climate change and capping rates on credit card and other consumer loans. Warren and Senator Kamala Harris of California, another leading presidential contender, also have wooed Ocasio-Cortez with other co-sponsored initiatives.

Ocasio-Cortez’s outsized influence in the Democratic Party is on frequent display. Earlier this year, the lawmaker -- who is of Puerto Rican descent -- roiled the Capitol by accusing Speaker Nancy Pelosi of targeting “newly elected women of color” by being dismissive of her, Omar, and two other liberal Democratic freshmen known as “the Squad.”

Tussle With Trump

Later, President Donald Trump galvanized Democrats after he tweeted that the squad members -- all women of color and all U.S. citizens should “go back where they came from.” Even the cost of Ocasio-Cortez’s haircuts has become a target for conservative media, only burnishing her reputation and fame.

“You all like my haircut?” the lawmaker said as she kicked off her remarks. “It got a lot of attention last week.”

The Sanders campaign loaded up on other endorsements ahead of Saturday’s rally, including a number of city and state lawmakers. Together, the campaign said, the group “played key roles” in foiling Amazon.com Inc.’s plan to locate a second headquarters in Queens.

Endorsements are rarely game-changers, but they can be: Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts shifted the course of the 2008 Democratic primary election by backing Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton.

Some Sanders supporters attending the rally said the Ocasio-Cortez endorsement will give Sanders an added jolt, just when he needs it most.

‘Great Outreach’

“It’s going to help him,” said Maini Suzuki, 40, a self-employed designer from Brooklyn who backed Sanders in 2016 and this time. “She did the right thing. It will bring more young people to the campaign. She has great outreach.”

Others, though, said that while they like Sanders’s agenda, they see his prospects fading in a field that offers choices including Warren, Harris and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey as palatable alternatives.

“I love Bernie, but I might not vote for him because he might not be able to get nominated,” said Richard Dumas, 65, of Jackson Heights. “But I want to be here today to be part of the movement.“

To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Litvan in Queens, New York at llitvan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Wendy Benjaminson, Ros Krasny

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