Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may be the socialist superstar of the Left, but her movement continues to prove its own insignificance.
In the 2018 midterm elections, Justice Democrats, the political action committee that catapulted her to Congress, had under a 33% success rate in the primaries and less than a 27% success rate in the general election, if you include Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, and Raul Grijalva, all three of whom were already incumbents.
On Super Tuesday, Justice Democrats continued its losing streak, this time with its Next Big Thing, Jessica Cisneros. She tried and failed to primary centrist Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar of South Texas.
Cuellar, who represents Laredo, earned the ire of the Justice Democrats for being the sort of Democrat capable of routinely winning a D+9 district, predominantly populated by religious Hispanics. Cuellar voted for the Affordable Care Act but also for a 20-week abortion ban, with which roughly two-thirds of the country agrees.
Naturally, the socialists at Justice Democrats decided to spearhead the movement to expunge the thought-criminal, aiming to replace Cuellar with Cisneros, a 26-year-old immigration attorney.
Like Ocasio-Cortez, Cisneros is extraordinarily young, Latina, and popular on social media. Unlike Ocasio-Cortez, Cisneros wasn’t running in a D+29 district. Even after outraising Cuellar prior to the primary and earning months of laudatory media coverage, Cisneros ultimately lost by more than 2,000 votes, or 4 points.
Justice Democrat and Young Turks founder Cenk Uygur also bombed in his own congressional primary, earning just 4% in his bid to take over Katie Hill’s seat.
Consider: If Justice Democrats and Ocasio-Cortez can’t help a socialist like Tiffany Caban win the district attorney seat in Queens (D+30), what hope does it have flipping seats in the South?
As it becomes increasingly clear that its own presidential pick might have just thrown away the election, it may just be that the AOC dream is simply that: a dream.
