Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said Sunday that the Democratic Party should avoid moving further left on the ideological spectrum if they hope to win a presidential election.
Following the shocking defeat of fourth-ranking House Democrat Joe Crowley of New York by avowed Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in last week’s primary contest, the party has been thrown into a state of uncertainty.
But Duckworth told CNN’s Jake Tapper that she doesn’t foresee that being a winning strategy in the Midwest.
“I think that you can’t win the White House without the Midwest,” Duckworth said. “And I don’t think you can go too far to the left and still win the Midwest — coming from a Midwestern state.”
Duckworth said that it’s important to be able to have dialogue with the “industrial Midwest,” adding, “You need to listen to the people there in order to win an election nationwide.”
The socialist policies Ocasio-Cortez openly espouses are, rather, the “future of the Bronx, where she is,” according to Duckworth.
