Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14) complained on Instagram that the far-left wing of the party was not called in to help failed gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe in Virginia.
“I know that Virginia was a huge bummer,” she said, “and honestly, if anything, I think the results show the limits of trying to run a fully, 100 percent fully moderated campaign that does not excite, speak to, or energize a progressive base. And frankly, we weren’t really even invited to contribute on that race.”
McAuliffe, whose gaffe and scandal-plagued campaign ended with a loss to Republican Glenn Youngkin Tuesday, ran a decidedly moderate campaign.
Education was a central issue throughout the race, and Virginians roundly rejected the progressive curricula of Critical Race Theory (CRT), as well as transgender bathrooms and mask and vaccine mandates in schools.
Whether campaigning with the likes of Ocasio-Cortez or other progressive Democrats would have helped or hindered McAuliffe will never be known, though McAuliffe did concede his race with a rather progressive message, in stark contrast to his messaging on the campaign trail.
Striking the opposite tune of Ocasio-Cortez, longtime Democrat activist James Carville said Thursday that “stupid wokeness” was to blame for McAuliffe’s loss.
In a broader context, the New York progressive’s swipe at McAuliffe is just another example of the ongoing civil war inside the Democrat Party, which remains undecided on its own identity.
Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) have been the subject to crazed confrontations from far-left climate activists and other progressives as they continued to hold up a Democrat infrastructure bill that would allocate $3.5 trillion for healthcare, paid family leave, climate change, and other progressive wish-list items.
Manchin and Sinema, both Democrats in traditionally Republican states, are accused of holding up what would be unprecedented far-left legislation in order to quell their own reelection concerns.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Terry McAuliffe with Supporter” by Terry McAuliffe.
