The New York congresswoman shook the establishment when she ousted a senior Democrat but has since become a progressive inside player.
By Daniel Marans and
Kevin Robillard
Aug 19, 2024,
By handing her a prime-time speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday night, the Democratic Party has fully embraced New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a still-occasional insurgent against the party’s leadership who opened her career with the shocking ouster of an incumbent.
It was not even Ocasio-Cortez’s idea to speak at the convention, according to a senior aide. The convention organizers contacted her about the opportunity and gave her a prime-time spot better than the slot given to New York’s governor. And she used it to deliver a stemwinder, generating some of the loudest cheers of the convention’s first night and leaving the crowd chanting “A-O-C” as she walked off the stage.
“In Kamala Harris, we have a chance to elect a president who is for the middle class because she is from the middle class,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
The embrace does not mean Ocasio-Cortez’s disagreements with senior Democrats have wholly disappeared. And it definitely does not mean the Democratic Party establishment fully embraces Ocasio-Cortez’s progressive agenda.
But it does mean the two sides have decided that working together can benefit them both. The Democratic Party can use Ocasio-Cortez’s best-in-class communications skills and massive social media footprint to talk to finicky and hard-to-reach young voters, and Ocasio-Cortez can have more influence over the party’s agenda when she has a strong working relationship with its leaders.
Ocasio-Cortez’s speech made a left-leaning, populist case for Harris, focusing on how she will stand up to large corporations and tearing into Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“We know Trump would sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his own pockets and greasing the palms of his Wall Street friends,” she said. “And I, for one, am tired of hearing about how a two-bit union buster thinks of himself as more of a patriot than the woman who fights every single day.”
She also made the first mention of the conflict in Gaza from the convention stage, saying Harris was “working tirelessly to secure a cease-fire in Gaza and bringing the hostages home.”
Once an outsider, AOC now has the entire dnc hall chanting her name. pic.twitter.com/uVTHiyRiWq— Daniel Marans (@danielmarans) August 20, 2024
It is hard to overstate how difficult it would be to imagine Ocasio-Cortez landing Monday’s speaking spot when she first won her seat. Ocasio-Cortez, who is still just 34 years old, was the youngest woman ever elected to Congress when she defeated Rep. Joe Crowley, then the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, to represent a bright-blue seat covering portions of the Bronx and Queens during the 2018 midterm elections.
“Six years ago, I was taking omelette orders as a waitress in New York City,” Ocasio-Cortez said at the opening of her speech.
Ocasio-Cortez, who stumped for other progressive primary challengers and joined a climate action sit-in on her first day in Congress at then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, had a splashy — and often contentious — first term in office. She quickly became one of the most famous members of Congress, with a massive social media presence and digital fundraising footprint.
Republicans villainized her relentlessly in conservative media, treating the New York congresswoman as evidence of Democrats’ radicalism. And fellow Democrats worried they’d be next on the left’s primary list. Ocasio-Cortez teamed up with other progressives of color to form the “Squad,” establishing themselves as the party’s left flank and embracing policies that terrified moderates, including abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, supporting Medicare-for-All and restricting weapons transfers to Israel.
It’s those progressive views that still lead many Democrats in swing districts to keep their distance from Ocasio-Cortez. Asked about her speaking slot, Suzan DelBene, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and a moderate, largely ducked the question.
“We have a very diverse and big caucus from all over the country. I actually think that’s one thing that makes the Democratic caucus so strong, because we have folks who share our values in wanting to govern and move our country forward,” DelBene said. “You’re going to be hearing a lot of folks speaking tonight.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s pragmatism has been on display since the 2020 presidential election, however.
After endorsing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and giving his campaign a critical boost, Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Joe Biden in the general election in exchange for influence over his agenda. Biden championed climate policy with his Inflation Reduction Act; this past Earth Day, Ocasio-Cortez joined Biden at an event touting the creation of the American Climate Corps, a passion project of progressive climate activists with whom Ocasio-Cortez is aligned.
She continued backing Biden, even sticking with him when many other Democrats pushed him to exit the presidential race, despite breaking with him over his unflinching support for Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, the president of youth vote group NextGen America, told HuffPost that handing a prime speaking slot to Ocasio-Cortez showed the party was taking young voters and the progressive policies they support seriously.
“We are seeing young people fully invested in and taken seriously by the Democratic Party and understood that they are not just nice to have as a voting bloc, but a requirement to win,” Ramirez said. “And I think that you are also seeing the Democratic Party respond to their policy demands.”
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