Ocasio-Cortez Hints At Quitting Politics
16K The Daily Wireby Joseph Curl /
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) suggested in a recent interview that she might not stay in politics, saying her own party thinks she’s “the enemy.”
In an interview with The New York Times over the weekend, Ocasio-Cortez was asked if she was considering a Senate run in the next couple of years. Sen. Chuck Schumer is up for re-election in 2022 and Sen. Kirsten Gilibrand in 2024.
“I genuinely don’t know,” the Democratic socialist said.
“I don’t even know if I want to be in politics. 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,” she added. “It’s the incoming. It’s the stress. It’s the violence. It’s the lack of support from your own party. It’s your own party thinking you’re the enemy.”
“But I’m serious when I tell people the odds of me running for higher office and the odds of me just going off trying to start a homestead somewhere — they’re probably the same,” Ocasio-Cortez added.
The vocal progressive also ripped the Democratic Party for targeting her while all she wants to do is help, saying she could have helped vulnerable members win.
“I’ve been begging the party to let me help them for two years. That’s also the damn thing of it. I’ve been trying to help. Before the election, I offered to help every single swing district Democrat with their operation. And every single one of them, but five, refused my help. And all five of the vulnerable or swing district people that I helped secured victory or are on a path to secure victory. And every single one that rejected my help is losing. And now they’re blaming us for their loss,” she said.
“So I need my colleagues to understand that we are not the enemy. And that their base is not the enemy. That the Movement for Black Lives is not the enemy, that Medicare for all is not the enemy. This isn’t even just about winning an argument. It’s that if they keep going after the wrong thing, I mean, they’re just setting up their own obsolescence,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez also said, “The last two years have been pretty hostile. Externally, we’ve been winning. Externally, there’s been a ton of support, but internally, it’s been extremely hostile to anything that even smells progressive.”
On Sunday, the 31-year-old, first-term lawmaker told CNN’s Jake Tapper that she is going to be doing everything that she can to make sure Democrats win the two Senate races that have gone to a runoff in Georgia so that Democrats will have a majority in the Senate and won’t have to “negotiate” with Republicans.
“As of now, however, it looks as though Republicans, at least until January, will hold control of the Senate,” Tapper said. “That’s going to complicate your desire and the desire of other progressives for bold, sweeping, progressive legislation.”
Related: AOC: I’m Doing ‘Everything’ To Win Georgia For Democrats So We Don’t Have To ‘Negotiate’ With Republicans |
