Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she doesn’t know whether she wants to stay in politics, much less run for higher office.
“It’s the stress. … It’s the lack of support from your own party. It’s your own party thinking you’re the enemy,’’ the Bronx congresswoman told the New York Times in an interview published over the weekend.
“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,” said the pol, who just won re-election.
“I don’t even know if I want to be in politics,” AOC said. “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.’’
The self-described Democratic socialist and her “Squad” of congressional cronies have taken heat over their party’s unexpectedly poor showing in some races, with critics saying the progressive female group’s attempt to push the Dems to the far left killed colleagues at the polls.
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) on Sunday accused liberals who pushed the “Defund the police” battle cry amid the Black Lives Matter movement of costing some Democrats their seats. AOC has been among those calling for “defunding.”
The congresswoman acknowledged to CNN on Sunday that the Republicans “levied very effective rhetorical attacks against our party” over such issues.
But that’s not the real problem, she said — it’s that the Dems are so far behind the times when it comes to getting out their message.
“Our party isn’t even online, not in a real way that exhibits competence. And so, yeah, [some Democratic candidates] were vulnerable to these messages because they weren’t even on the mediums where these messages were so potent,’’ she told the Times. “They were sitting ducks.”
Ocasio-Cortez insisted that Americans not only like the progressives’ stances, they vote for them.
“Before the election, I offered to help every single swing-district Democrat with their operation,” she said. “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,” she said. “And every single one that rejected my help is losing.
“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.
“If [Democrats] keep going after the wrong thing, I mean, they’re just setting up their own obsolescence,” she told the paper.