Firebrand socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is down in Texas — and she’s made a very bold prediction.
In a viral video, Ocasio-Cortez is shown at an Austin rally for far-left candidates for U.S. Congress, like attorney Jessica Cisneros and former Austin councilmember Greg Casar. In the video, she tells a cheering crowd that she will turn Texas into a Democrat-controlled state.
“It will happen,” Ocasio-Cortez said Sunday. “The only question is when, Texas. The only question is when.”
“The work that you put in today. The work that you put in tomorrow. The work you put in on Monday. When you go one more door when you’re tired. When you make one more call when you feel exhausted. You’re bringing that day one day sooner,” she said about turning Texas into a blue state. “One day sooner. One day faster. This state will turn blue. It’s going to happen.”
AOC: “Texas will turn blue. It is inevitable!”
Is GOP doing anything to respond to this? pic.twitter.com/v8e1NMwd2g
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) February 14, 2022
Ocasio-Cortez and her political allies have targeted primary races throughout the Southern and Western U.S. as a way to take further control of the Democratic Party. They have targeted the few remaining conservative Democrats, like Rep. Henry Cuellar — an increasingly rare politician in the Democratic Party, a conservative-leaning lawmaker whose unapologetic defense of gun rights and the energy industry during his 17 years in Congress long delighted his Texas constituents.
That was once a winning strategy for Democrats running in moderate swaths of the country. But for Cuellar, whose district stretches from the San Antonio suburbs to the Mexican border, those stances could leave him vulnerable to a challenge from the far-left Cisneros, an attorney. She nearly beat Cuellar in the 2020 Democratic primary and is seeking a rematch with hopes of tapping into growing frustration among progressives about the pace of change in Washington.
A recent FBI search near Cuellar’s home this week could add a new dimension to the contest. Cuellar hasn’t been charged with a crime and the bureau has said nothing about the scope of its investigation, including whether he is the subject of a probe.
But the development added to the stakes of the March 1 primary in Texas, which will usher in several months of contests across the nation to determine which candidates advance to the fall general election.
Progressives and socialists are closely watching the race as a test of whether they can topple other moderate, establishment-oriented candidates as the primary season unfolds.
“I think Jessica had a strong shot before the investigation,” said Waleed Shahid, a spokesman for the progressive group Justice Democrats, which has backed Democratic primary challengers against more moderate members of Congress around the country. “I think she can win.”
Shahid compared Cisneros to progressive stars like Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts who “have really become rising figures in the party and part of this new generation of leadership.”
When Ocasio-Cortez defeated Joe Crowley in a 2018 primary, she ushered in a new era in which radical socialists began taking on Democratic establishment-oriented incumbents in an effort to move the party further left.
Justice Democrats first recruited Cisneros to run against Cuellar in 2020, after supporting Ocasio-Cortez’s upset primary win two years earlier.
Cisneros, who was an intern in Cuellar’s Washington office in 2014, racked up endorsements from many of the radical left’s leading national voices, including Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, as well as Ocasio-Cortez. She branded Cuellar as “Trump’s favorite Democrat” and ultimately came within 4 percentage points of beating him.
First elected to Congress in 2004, Cuellar serves on the powerful House Appropriations Committee and was outspoken in blaming national Democrats’ move to the left during the 2020 campaign on issues like health care and the environment as contributing to some disappointing losses in the House.
He argued that GOP suggestions that Democrats opposed police, embraced socialized medicine, and would sacrifice jobs in key industries like oil and gas created a narrative that helped ensure Democrats retained their majority in the chamber by only the slimmest of margins — even as the more moderate Joe Biden won the presidency.
Cuellar has drawn progressive criticism for years, in part because of the praise he’s attracted from groups like the National Rifle Association.
He also was the lone House Democrat to oppose major abortion rights legislation in September. And Cuellar joined a group of moderates who helped force passage of a major public works bill that had broader bipartisan support before Congress could tackle a larger, spending and social welfare package championed by Biden and top progressives. It still hasn’t passed.
The primary’s outcome could prove even more critical this cycle, as Democrats seem unlikely to defend their narrow control of the House in November.
After topping Cisneros the first time, Cuellar cruised to a nearly 20-point win over a little-known Republican opponent. New congressional maps based on the 2020 census make the district slightly more Democratic, picking up blue territory along its northern extremes near San Antonio.
Still, Republicans are hoping to stay competitive in a district that’s nearly 80% Hispanic, betting they can capitalize on former President Donald Trump’s unexpectedly strong 2020 showing among Latino voters, especially in south Texas. Biden won Latinos by a 59% to 38% margin over Trump two years ago, but that was 7 percentage points lower than Hillary Clinton’s 66% to 28% margin in 2016, according to Pew Research Center data.
[READ MORE] Ocasio-Cortez finally tells the truth
The Associated Press contributed to this article