House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. are used to fighting for power on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
Their constant struggles for influence and command of the Democratic Party have been well-documented.
But Tuesday, the results of a Senate primary in far-away Massachusetts — where political heir Joe Kennedy is running — will prove who’s in charge.
Senate hopeful Kennedy, officially endorsed by Pelosi, is pitted against incumbent Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who helped work with Ocasio-Cortez on the far-left $93 trillion Green New Deal bill.
Ocasio-Cortez and her liberal ally have made slight inroads in lifting progressive candidates over moderate Democratic incumbents, three so far in this year’s primary including the ouster of former Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., who lost his seat to a math teacher.
But Ocasio-Cortez’s track record of endorsing primary opponents has drawn criticism from Pelosi in the past.
Critics have wondered that behind closed doors Pelosi is worried Ocasio-Cortez is the more powerful of the two.
But leading up to the election between Kennedy and Markey, Pelosi made an interesting move: She endorsed a primary challenger herself.
AOC was quick to point out the hypocrisy in a social media tweet.
“No one gets to complain about primary challenges again,” she wrote in a veiled shot at Pelosi.
No one gets to complain about primary challenges again. 🤗
So @dccc, when can we expect you to reverse your blacklist policy against primary orgs?
Because between this & lack of care around @IlhanMN’s challenger, it seems like less a policy and more a cherry-picking activity. https://t.co/xSneSK8H2q
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 20, 2020
But the roles are reversed this time.
The progressive Ocasio-Cortez is backing is already in the Senate — and she’s fighting Pelosi to keep him in.
Polling experts predict that AOCwill win, with Markey leading a recent Emerson College/WHDH poll 56 percent to Kennedy’s 44 percent.
But as the votes begin to tally on Tuesday, one thing is becoming increasingly certain …
Forget Markey and Kennedy.
The most important political battle in the Democratic Party is between Ocasio-Cortez and Pelosi.
And it doesn’t look like it’s going away soon.
The Horn editorial team