Rep. Conor Lamb defended his campaign and the voters in his Pennsylvania district after New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez name dropped him in a New York Times interview where she discussed Democrats losing House seats in the general election.
“I don’t think she really knows much about my campaign at all, or about my district,” Lamb told the Washington Post. “I’ve run now in western Pennsylvania, successfully, three times, with President Trump personally campaigning against me, over and over again.”
Asked Rep. Lamb about this. “I don’t think she really knows much about my campaign at all, or about my district. I’ve run now in western Pennsylvania, successfully, three times, with President Trump personally campaigning against me, over and over again.” https://t.co/cucKKEJ8vW
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) November 8, 2020
Ocasio-Cortez blamed Lamb’s lack of digital presence in his campaign as a poor strategy for Democrats, despite the fact that he narrowly won his reelection bid, defeating Republican Sean Parnell, who was endorsed by Trump.
“Conor Lamb spent $2,000 on Facebook the week before the election,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I don’t think anybody who is not on the internet in a real way in the Year of our Lord 2020 and loses an election can blame anyone else when you’re not even really on the internet. And I’ve looked through a lot of these campaigns that lost, and the fact of the matter is if you’re not spending $200,000 on Facebook with fund-raising, persuasion, volunteer recruitment, get-out-the-vote the week before the election, you are not firing on all cylinders.”
The New York Democrat’s comments come after some moderate House Democrats blamed rhetoric by the progressive wing of the party for election losses or closer-than-expected races.
In a Democratic caucus call, Rep. Abigail Spanberger lashed out about losing seats she believed could have been kept by Democrats. Spanberger, who declared victory for her tight race for Virginia’s 7th District, blamed rhetoric about “defunding the police” for her near-loss. She also warned her colleagues to never use the word “socialism” again.
Ocasio-Cortez, one of the leading progressive voices of the party, disputed those accusations, blaming their lack of campaigning instead for being susceptible to “Republican messaging.”
“Our party isn’t even online, not in a real way that exhibits competence,” she said. “And so, yeah, they were vulnerable to these messages, because they weren’t even on the mediums where these messages were most potent. Sure, you can point to the message, but they were also sitting ducks.”
Lamb, 36, and Ocasio-Cortez, 31, were both first elected in 2018 when a number of Democrats were able to flip enough House seats to overtake the lower chamber’s majority.
Lamb, a Marine Corps veteran and former federal prosecutor, represents Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District comprised of the Pittsburgh area. His district was won by Trump in 2016, who ultimately flipped Pennsylvania breaking years of the state being a Democratic stronghold.
