Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a self-avowed Democratic socialist, said during a recent interview she is “serious” about potentially walking away from politics in the future.
Asked by New York Times reporter Astead Herndon if she would consider running for U.S. Senate in a couple years, Ocasio-Cortez replied: “I genuinely don’t know.”
“In the first six months of my term, I didn’t even know if I was going to run for re-election this year,” the 31-year-old lawmaker claimed. “It’s the incoming. It’s the stress. It’s the violence. It’s the lack of support from your own party. It’s your own party thinking you’re the enemy. When your own colleagues talk anonymously in the press and then turn around and say you’re bad because you actually append your name to your opinion.”
The Democratic Party is going through something of an identity crisis right now. Last week, following an impressive showing for the Republican Party in the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) said during a conference call with other Democrats that their party is struggling to appeal to more Americans because they’re becoming increasingly radical.
“Don’t say ‘socialism’ ever again,” Spanberger said, arguing the left’s “Defund the Police” movement “almost cost me my race.”
Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, explained to CNN’s Don Lemon the Democratic Party has a “fundamental problem,” pointing out they are “more concerned about policing various cultural issues than improving [Americans’] way of life.”
For what it’s worth, Ocasio-Cortez seems to fundamentally disagree, explaining to Herndon it’s not radical policies that are losing elections for Democrats. Rather, she claimed, it’s because of poor campaign strategies and racist voters who want to keep minorities and women out of office.
The New York politician said in September it’s “likely” she can push now-President-elect Joe Biden toward endorsing more radical policy proposals.
Herndon asked Ocasio-Cortez what she would do if the incoming Biden administration were opposed to her Democratic socialist ideals.
“Well, I’d be bummed, because we’re going to lose,” she replied, referring to future elections. “And that’s just what it is.”
If Ocasio-Cortez’s radical political philosophy doesn’t become mainstream in the Democratic Party, she may end up just walking away from it, she claimed.
“I’m serious when I tell people the odds of me running for higher office and the odds of me just going off trying to start a homestead somewhere — they’re probably the same,” she said, claiming it’s been “pretty hostile” working with Democrats the last two years.
Anything else?
Ocasio Cortez told CNN’s Jake Tapper over the weekend she plans to do “everything” in her power to ensure Democrats win the two runoff Senate races in Georgia in early January.
Without GOP wins for Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue at the beginning of the year, the Democrats will control every level of government: the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives.
“I’m going to be spending my next couple of months doing everything that I can to extend help and offer support … to make sure that we don’t have a Republican Senate majority, that we win these races in Georgia, that we secure a Democratic Senate majority, so that we don’t have to negotiate in that way,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And so these Senate runoff races, they’re on Jan. 5, I believe. And it’s — that is right around the time that we will be preparing to swear in now-President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.”