Democratic congressional candidate for New York Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez cited Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Bob Menendez, D-N.J., as examples of why Democrats need to adjust their messaging as opposed to fundraising corporate dollars, after the incumbent senators faced surprising challenges during their respective primary elections.
Manchin’s primary opponent, Paula Jean Swearengin, secured about 30 percent of the vote in their May primary, despite being a political novice and spending only $167,000 to Manchin’s $2,767,000. Similarly, Menendez, whose corruption charges were dropped by the Justice Department in January, was challenged by Lisa McCormick. She earned almost 38 percent of the statewide vote in their June contest despite spending less than $5,000.
“That, to me, tells me that we need to start reframing our issues instead of Left and Right to top and down,” Ocasio-Cortez said during an episode of “Pod Save America” that aired Tuesday. “And it’s not about, ‘Oh, I have to weather my message to Republicans.’ There are people that really want to feel like there’s an unapologetic working class champion for them.”
“So, it’s going to require a little busting of this idea that we have of politics that has been so calcified, that we’ve taken so much as fact, that I just don’t think is necessarily true,” she continued.
Ocasio-Cortez, a self-described socialist, came out of nowhere to defeat Rep. Joe Crowley, a 10-term congressman, in their June primary to represent New York’s 14th Congressional District. Her win has prompted internal debate within the Democratic Party about whether its policy platforms need to veer to the left if it wants to stay competitive in future election cycles.
She has since criticized many of her likely future Democratic colleagues in the House, and in a few cases even endorsed their rivals in Democratic primaries.
Watch Ocasio-Cortez’s interview below:
