Self-described “democratic socialist” Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) should check herself before she wrecks herself when it comes to challenging Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in the 2022 primaries, according to Jay Jacobs, Chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee.
“I think it would be a primary driven by ambition more than by need… Chuck Schumer has been a progressive force in the state for decades,” said Jacobs in an interview with the New York Post on Saturday. “[AOC] has a constituency that admires her and supports her, and they’re in her community, and I think it would be a loss for them if she were to do that,” said Jacobs.
The Democratic Party suffered from a leaked conference call shortly after the Nov. 3 Election where the moderate side of the Party was fierce with the progressive side for pushing unpopular narratives such as “Defund the Police,” advocating for the Marxist-linked Black Lives Matter, and the open advocation of socialism.
Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) yelled on the leaked call: “No one should say ‘defund the police’ ever again… Nobody should be talking about socialism.” She said of the Democrat’s 2020 results: “It was a failure. It was not a success. We lost incredible members of Congress… We will get f—–g torn apart in 2022,” she said, unless the Party’s socialist agenda is nipped in the bud.
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) shared the same views, saying if Democrats “are going to run on Medicare for All, defund the police, socialized medicine, we’re not going to win.” The Democrat majority shrunk in the House of Representatives from 235 to 199 in 2018, and 222 to 211 in 2020.
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Ocasio-Cortez, a 31-year-old who became the youngest woman ever to serve in the U.S. Congress after winning the 2018 primaries, made it clear that her ambitions aim higher. In an interview with Vanity Fair in October, she said: “I don’t know if I’m really going to be staying in the House forever… I don’t see myself really staying where I’m at for the rest of my life.”
In December, the youngster took direct aim at her senior peers Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership in an interview with The Intercept: “A lot of this is not just about these two personalities, but also about the structural shifts that these two personalities have led in their time in leadership.”
Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and has pushed hard for far-left initiatives such as the controversial “Green New Deal” and abolishing U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
U.S. President Donald Trump told Fox News in an interview in August that he believes Ocasio-Cortez will challenge Schumer in the Senate: “Schumer’s going to get beaten by her.
“She’s going to run against Schumer, and he knows that and he’s going to get beaten by her unless you can talk her out of doing it.”
Earlier in December, she was defeated in her bid to join the House Energy and Commerce Committee, a committee that would have given her space to push her agenda of leftist health care and climate policy initiatives, by moderate Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-NY).
Prior to the vote, Ocasio-Cortez was put on notice by her fellow Democrats for actively campaigning against the moderate side of the party: “I’m taking into account who works against other members in primaries and who doesn’t,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX).
AOC lost the secret ballot by a landslide: 46-13.
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