Democrat Party Bosses Hit Panic Button Over AOC Senate Bid
Top New York Democrats are panicking over the possibility of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez running for Senate, which could draw the party into a bloody civil war and potentially hand the seat to Republicans.
Ocasio-Cortez has been an outspoken critic of New York Senator Chuck Schumer, the chamber’s Minority Leader, accusing him of being insufficiently liberal.
With New York state set to lose a U.S. House seat in 2022 due to slow population growth, and New York Democrats possibly looking to use the opportunity to draw Ocasio-Cortez into a district she can’t win, speculation is growing she will wage an all-or-nothing bid to defeat Schumer and either win the seat or cost him re-election.
She has also specifically targeted Schumer, saying it’s time for Democrats to elect “new leaders.”
That has top Democrats panicking.
“I think it would be a primary driven by ambition more than by need,” New York State Democrat Party chairman Jay Jacobs tells The New York Post, urging Ocasio-Cortez to reconsider any Senate bid.
“Chuck Schumer has been a progressive force in the state for decades. She has a constituency that admires her and supports her, and they’re in her community, and I think it would be a loss for them if she were to do that,” Jacobs tells the Post.
Jacobs predicts if she were to run against Schumer, she would likely lose. She narrowly won her seat in 2018 against an incumbent Democrat, but only because he put in little effort, refused to campaign, and assumed he would win – mistakes Schumer does not make.
It’s also not out of the question if she were to win the primary or cause a large number of Democrats to split from Schumer, she or Schumer would lose to a Republican. New York election laws that allow Republicans and Democrats to also be nominated by third parties also make it easier for third parties to run strong campaigns.
In 1970 James L. Buckley, brother of conservative icon William F. Buckley, defeated both a Republican and a Democrat to serve a term as a U.S. Senator from New York as the nominee of the Conservative Party.
Since then, left-leaning Republicans have won U.S. Senate seats and governor’s races in New York and the state’s most liberal stronghold, New York City, has elected left-leaning Republicans as two of the last three mayors.
That has Democrats scrambling to find a way to remove Ocasio-Cortez from the House without sending her into a Senate bid that will almost certainly be bloody and damaging for establishment Democrats.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AmericanActionNews.com.
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