AOC might quit politics after Democrats blame progressives for House loss

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was re-elected in 2020 after many believed her first victory was luck

Nov 8, 2020

In an exclusive interview with the New York Times, House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), aka AOC, said she might quit politics because of resistance from fellow Democrats.

Despite remaining the majority, House Democrats lost some seats in this election. Many of them went on to blame progressive members like AOC, according to Business Insider.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), is seen as U.S. Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testifies during a hearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on August 24, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The committee is holding a hearing on “Protecting the Timely Delivery of Mail, Medicine, and Mail-in Ballots.” (Photo by Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images)

“I don’t even know if I want to be in politics,” she told The Times. “You know, for real, in the first six months of my term, I didn’t even know if I was going to run for re-election this year.”

“I chose to run for re-election because I felt like I had to prove that this is real. That this movement was real. That I wasn’t a fluke,” AOC told The Times. “That people really want guaranteed health care and that people really want the Democratic Party to fight for them.”

With her stance on Medicare for All and a strong alliance with the Black Lives Matter movement, AOC is seen as a nuisance among center-left Democrats who favor liberal ideas but like to compromise with the right.

.@AOC tells @jaketapper that "not a single member of Congress that I'm aware of campaigned on socialism or defunding the police in this general election."

She says Dems' problem is a weak party operation that needs to become "stronger and more resilient to Republican attacks."
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) November 9, 2020

AOC said that some of her colleagues would appear to be supportive of her progressive causes in front of the media, but inside the chambers, she is met with hostility.

“Externally, there’s been a ton of support,” she said, according to The Times. “But internally, it’s been extremely hostile to anything that even smells progressive.”

The Bronx native said that fellow House members should embrace progressiveness, stating that “they’re just setting up their own obsolescence.”

She also praised activists, many of whom share her progressive opinions, on Twitter.

AOC was re-elected in 2020 after defeating former CNBC contributor Michelle Caruso-Cabrera (MCC) in the Democratic primary in New York’s 14th congressional district.

Many of her opposers believed her 2018 victory over former Rep. Joseph Crowley was a fluke.

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