Why did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticize New York Democratic Party leadership despite winning?
While recriminations are flying in the GOP for the failure of the “Red Wave” the Democrats are dealing with their own infighting after the 2022 Midterms.
The 2022 Midterms have defied expectations in more ways than one. While the Republican party was expecting to pick up numerous seats in both the House and the Senate to take control of Congress, the jury’s decision is still forth coming.
The lackluster performance of many GOP candidates is being blamed on candidate quality of those endorsed by former president Trump and party leadership. But they are not alone, the poor showing of Democratic candidates in the New York suburbs has sparked a back-and-forth between rising star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the head of the Democrats’ campaign committee Sean Patrick Maloney.
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AOC slams New York state party leadership
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, better known as AOC, took to Twitter on Wednesday to criticize New York Democratic Party leadership despite her own win. “NYS Dem party leadership, which was gutted under Cuomo, stuffed with lobbyists, works to boost GOP, and failed to pass a basic state ballot measure to protect NY redistricting, must be accountable,” she posted.
In the same tweet ACO called for the resignation of the chair of the New York State Democratic Committee Jay Jacobs. She blamed the state party leader for the “catastrophic ballot measure loss that would’ve saved Dem House seats” and being protected despite comparing “a Black woman Dem nominee to the KKK.” In the 2022 midterm elections the vote in the Empire State swung to the right when compared with the vote in the 2020 presidential election.
While Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul came out on top to win her first full term after taking over for disgraced Governor Andrew Cuomo, Republicans managed to flip four Democratic House seats in the state.
Democratic party leadership questions AOC support in Midterms
US Representative Maloney didn’t take the accusations from AOC lying down. “Let’s be clear, she had almost nothing to do with what turned out to be an historic defense of our majority,” he told The New York Times. “The last time I ran into AOC, we were beating her endorsed candidate two to one in a primary, and I didn’t see her one minute of these midterms helping our House majority.”
Rep. Maloney was one of the Democrats in the Empire State that lost his seat to a GOP challenger. “There are other voices who should be heard, especially when suburban voters have clearly rejected the ideas that she’s most associated with, from defunding the police on down,” Maloney added. “She’s an important voice in our politics. But when it comes to passing our agenda through the Congress, or standing our ground on the political battlefield, she was nowhere to be found.”
He went on to say that she “didn’t pay a dollar of dues” nor do anything for the party’s frontline candidates “except give them money when they didn’t want it from her.”
“Let’s make something crystal clear” retorts AOC
AOC wasn’t having any of what Rep. Maloney said and took to Twitter again to state the facts as she saw them. “Let’s make something crystal clear,” she wrote. “[Maloney] courted me for donations to swing races & it was the 1st thing I did this term. Over a quarter million for Dems this cycle, DCCC facilitated some & now he denies it.” She also said that it was “on him” any failure to notice the “efforts we put in” and her visit to California in support of Democratic candidates.
“Many moderate dems + leaders made it very clear that our help was not welcome nor wanted. Despite our many, many offers. Yet [we] found ways to try to help from afar. So for them to blame us for respecting their approach in their districts is laughable,” she finished her thread.