Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has raked in oodles of campaign cash, but the Democratic socialist darling has been a real penny-pincher when it comes to spreading the wealth to the House’s Democratic campaign committee — and that’s vexing her fellow Dems.
The far-left Bronx-Queens congressional freshman has not given a dime to the Democratic Congressional Committee, controlled by House leadership, her campaign spokesman Corbin Trent confirmed Friday.
AOC instead has built her own fundraising operation to benefit fellow progressive candidates — including members of the self-proclaimed “Squad” — to bypass the official Democratic Party fundraising operation.
Her decision to work independently of — and sometimes against — the House leadership and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has irked fellow members of her party.
“Sometimes the question comes: ‘Do you want to be in a majority or do you want to be in the minority?’ And do you want to be part of a team?” Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Queens) told Fox News, which first reported about AOC’s boycott of the DCCC.
Another source was less gentle.
“Deadbeat Cortez should pay her bills,” groused a House Democratic aide to the network. “She’s always whining about people paying their fair share and here she is leaving her friends with the bill.”
Meanwhile, she’s using the campaign cash to bankroll primary challengers in a bid to oust more moderate House members. Ocasio-Cortez raised $316,000 in 2019 alone through online fundraising for candidates she supports.
The 30-year-old has been at odds with the DCCC since it threatened to blackball any campaign strategists or pollsters who worked for Democratic primary challengers against House incumbents.
Ocasio-Cortez in 2018 shocked the political world by toppling one of the top-ranking House Democrats, ex-Rep. Joe Crowley, in a Democratic primary for New York’s 14th Congressional District.
And last March, she urged her supporters to boycott the DCCC and instead donate directly to Democratic candidates — an extraordinary power play for a first-term House member.
“The @DCCC’s new rule to blacklist+boycott anyone who does business w/ primary challengers is extremely divisive & harmful to the party,” she tweeted. “My recommendation, if you’re a small-dollar donor: pause your donations to DCCC & give directly to swing candidates instead.”
Records obtained by Fox News showed Ocasio-Cortez has failed to pay any of her $250,000 in “dues” to the DCCC.
Meanwhile, she is backing two left-leaning insurgents against moderate House incumbents — Jessica Cisneros against Rep. Henry Cuellar in Texas and Marie Newman against Rep. Dan Lipinski in Illinois.
And she has emerged as something of a grassroots fundraising powerhouse. The Post reported she raised more than $1.4 million in the third fundraising quarter for her re-election — topping all other House Democrats.
The former bartender has dissed the DCCC and says she’ll withhold the cash to protest the Democratic Party not backing insurgent progressive primary candidates, like herself, in the name of protecting incumbents.
“For me personally, I’m not paying D-trip dues,” Ocasio-Cortez told Fox, using slang for the DCCC and citing a “myriad of reasons.”
“One, I don’t agree with the policy around blacklisting groups that help progressive candidates,” she said, referring to a DCCC effort to sideline vendors who assist challengers to members of Congress.
“I think we need to evolve as a party and make room for that.”
Instead, Ocasio-Cortez has goosed her donor base with the help of socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, whom she endorsed for president in October, to funnel money directly to progressive candidates.
In 2019, she funneled more than $300,000 to candidates she’s endorsed by hosting online fundraising campaigns for them.
But she does support some colleagues: “I’m happy to support some incumbents, but it’s not just a blanket rule.”
Other beneficiaries of her online campaigns include her fellow progressive members of “The Squad,” all freshman women of color: Reps. Rashida Tlaib, who got about $10,000, Ilhan Omar, who received $29,000, and Ayanna Pressley, who got just $3,800.
But while her coffers fill up, Meeks and other colleagues are not amused about where it’s going.
Meeks told the network that not paying DCCC dues and working to boot Democratic colleagues shows a lack of respect for the party and fellow reps who have to answer to constituents more conservative than her Bronx and Queens base.
“DCCC dues are about supporting others because you want to be part of the team,” he said.
“The goal is to be in the majority. And the goal is, when you are on a team I would think, to respect individuals whose districts are different than yours.”
Ocasio-Cortez says the competition is healthy.
“We have to earn our keep every time. I think we have to make our case every single time,” she said.
Despite her differences with the DCCC and House leadership, AOC’s campaign emphasized that the lion’s share of the money she’s raised has been to help Democratic incumbents defeat Republicans to keep the majority in 2020.