últimas notícias

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is unafraid. At least publicly.

Anonymous Democratic operatives grumble that the millennial progressive needs a primary challenger.

“What I have recommended to the New York delegation is that you find her a primary opponent and make her a one-term congressperson,” a Democratic lawmaker told the Hill. “You’ve got numerous council people and state legislators who’ve been waiting 20 years for that seat. I’m sure they can find numerous people who want that seat in that district.”

Ocasio-Cortez said bring it on, more or less.

“We believe in primaries as an idea. We’re not upset by the idea of being primaried. We are not going to go out there being anti-primary — they are good for party,” Corbin Trent, a campaign spokesman for Ocasio-Cortez, told the Hill.

It was the only response Ocasio-Cortez could make. Primaries are kind of her thing. She won her seat by defeating Rep. Joe Crowley during a summer primary. Then, she turned around and sent out a second call to arms.

“Long story short, I need you to run for office,” Ocasio-Cortez said last November during a video conference hosted by Justice Democrats, the insurgent group trying to push the party left by primarying incumbents.

“All Americans know money in politics is a huge problem, but unfortunately, the way that we fix it is by demanding that our incumbents give it up or by running fierce campaigns ourselves,” Ocasio-Cortez said at the time. “That’s really what we need to do to save this country. That’s just what it is.”

Congress hasn’t scared her off so far. Aside from President Trump who wrote the freshman off altogether, establishment Republicans and Democrats still don’t realize that attacking AOC has the opposite effect. It bolsters her standing.

The most recent case in point: An email the Ocasio-Cortez camp sent out fundraising off of the anonymous primary threats lobbed her way.

“We expected pushback. Today we got it,” campaign manager Rebecca Rodriguez reportedly wrote in the email. “We always knew the establishment would stand in our way. We just didn’t expect them to come after us so hard and so fast.”

The Ocasio-Cortez campaign asked for as little as a $3 dollar donation to “fight back against any primary challenge the establishment throws our way.”

If shadowy voices keep calling for her ouster, Ocasio-Cortez will continue to monetize the threats. Small-dollar donations will continue to roll in. She will have plenty of cash on hand, to say nothing of her ever expanding media presence, if a primary challenger ever emerges. That should inspire confidence.