Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, has an appealing backstory, an infectious can-do attitude and a national following of political newbies who consider her a personal hero. Sound familiar?
A handful of Republican women shook up the party status quo 10 years ago and, in doing so, sustained media attention that far outstripped their accomplishments. Think Michele Bachmann in Congress, where her contributions were tiny compared with the national coverage of her campaigns. Think Sarah Palin, who gets credit—or blame, depending on your audience—for the Tea Party, Trumpian populism, and really every political event since 2008. The outsider status and inexperience that make these women so compelling also makes them easy targets for their ideological opponents. With Ocasio-Cortez, the formula is much the same: Her inarticulate socialism makes her an ideal adversary for Republicans on the defensive.
As Congress watchers point out, Ocasio-Cortez is going to be a deep backbencher come January. Which leaves her more time for the really important work: Raising money. She’s really good at it.
“Increased attention often means increased fundraising potential,” said campaign finance expert Michael Beckel. FEC filings show that more than half of campaign funds came from small-dollar donation, of $200 or less. “Clearly, Ocasio-Cortez is developing a base who may be willing to open their wallets not just for her but also for other candidates she endorses,” Beckel added.
“She’s been raising money for candidates,” said Corbin Trent, Ocasio-Cortez’s incoming communications director and campaign manager on the trail. “She’s raised over $100,000 total, through email lists and social media.” Her social media followings and email lists will only grow as 2020 approaches. “We’ll do everything we can,” Trent said.
Those out-of-state donations were, on average, small: Approximately $20, the sort Republicans used to be—until this year, in fact—better at attracting than Democrats. Trent demurred when asked if that fundraising model should supplant the status quo of Nancy Pelosi’s generation, saying, “It’s not something we’re doing intentionally at this point,” and “There a lot of things that we’re going to do differently.”
Judging by the attention she has received since winning, Ocasio-Cortez will be a leading fixture the party’s popular narrative going into the presidential primaries—and, let’s be honest, that matters more for 2020 than what most of what will actually happen in the House between now and then.
She and her progressive supporters may be disappointed in how little change she can actually drive as a freshman member who’s already antagonized the party’s once and (probably) future leader. But pep-rallying climate change protesters in Pelosi’s office earlier this week proved once more how little institutional power and political experience actually matter when you can command attention all on your own. In reality, Pelosi had already agreed to reinstate a select committee on climate change and put out a statement applauding the protesters herself. But it didn’t matter: Ocasio-Cortez joined an occupation of Pelosi’s office. She won the headlines.
So did Palin, for that matter, when she turned a very Alaska-specific infrastructure project into a defining rejection of government waste in the earmark era. (The reality of the “bridge to nowhere,” her constituents knew, was more complicated than she made it sound.) Ocasio-Cortez fumbling a question about Israel made less sense than Palin’s famously memed claim that trade across Alaska’s maritime border with Russia qualified as foreign relations experience.
And yet Ocasio-Cortez’s real talk about renting in D.C.—not a new challenge for freshmen members—won her high marks for relatability when she told the Times that she hadn’t chosen a place in the District because they couldn’t afford to move until her salary kicked in. Her ability to enchant her followers already surpasses that of her congressional colleagues. We should know better by now than to underestimate the power of one straight-talking upstart’s efforts to redefine the political landscape.
