On Tuesday, Democrat Terry McAuliffe lost to Republican Glenn Youngkin in Virginia’s upset election for governor.
Now McAuliffe is receiving unsolicited campaign advice from… Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
“On the election front, I actually think we have good news,” Ocasio-Cortez said via Instagram on Thursday. “I know that Virginia was a huge bummer, and, honestly, if anything, I think that the results show the limits of trying to run a fully, 100% super-moderated campaign that does not excite, speak to, or energize a progressive base, and frankly we weren’t even really invited to contribute on that race.”
Ocasio-Cortez has developed a habit of blaming the Democrats’ losses on what she considers half-measure progressivism.
After the 2020 election, she criticized the campaign former Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.
Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, “Why do we listen to people who lost elections as if they are experts in winning elections? McCaskill tried her approach. She ran as a caravan-hysteria Dem& lost while grassroots organizers won progressive measures in MO. Her language here shows how she took her base for granted.”
In fact, McCaskill has won more elections than Ocasio-Cortez in a more competitive jurisdiction. For example, McCaskill won Missouri’s Senate race by 15 points in 2012, as Republican presidential Mitt Romney candidate carried the state by nine points on the same day. That’s a lot of ticket splitting.
Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez represents a D+44 district, in which she underperformed President Joe Biden during last year’s election.
Plus, Ocasio-Cortez neglects to explain why her own preferred candidates sometimes lose.
For example, India Walton ran for mayor of Buffalo as a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America. She ousted the incumbent mayor during June’s primary election, and she eventually poached the endorsements of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.
Then she lost the general election by 18 points… despite being the only name on the ballot.
She lost to the incumbent mayor, who registered as a write-in candidate after losing the Democratic nomination.
The Twitterati have already blamed Walton’s loss on a vast conspiracy by the Democratic National Committee. Ocasio-Cortez hasn’t commented on Buffalo’s election yet, despite it being in her own state.
In reality, the data can’t explain McAuliffe’s loss yet.
Granted, a Fox News poll showed that parents swung toward Youngkin’s education policy. However, the current polls don’t explain why.
It’s not clear whether parents objected to school boards implementing critical race theory to train teachers or whether they objected to education bureaucrats canceling their kids’ accelerated courses.
In other words, there are gaps in the data, and Ocasio-Cortez filling is those gaps not with original reporting, but with her own preconceived narrative.
Watch Ocasio-Cortez’s video here —
AOC's take: McAuliffe lost because he wasn't progressive enough pic.twitter.com/L2kbJ5yXcY
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) November 4, 2021
Why do we listen to people who lost elections as if they are experts in winning elections?
McCaskill tried her approach. She ran as a caravan-hysteria Dem& lost while grassroots organizers won progressive measures in MO. Her language here shows how she took her base for granted. https://t.co/ZnTXI59MW9
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 5, 2020
The Horn editorial team