logo
AOC is the nightmarish new Donald Trump of the Left

AOC is the nightmarish new Donald Trump of the Left

Yahoo28-05-2025

Out with the old, in with the younger – that's the only way to explain a baffling new poll which revealed that a majority of New York Democrats would prefer to be represented by far-Left Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), who the White House has already started to call the 'Democrat Party leader', than the more moderate Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. It's a stinging rebuke of Schumer's leadership, at a moment when the Democrats are scrambling to reinvent themselves after last November's nationwide defeat.
The poll, which was commissioned by The Jewish Voters Action Network, pitted Schumer against AOC in a hypothetical Senate primary race. AOC led Schumer by an impossible-to-ignore 54 per cent to 33 per cent among likely Democrat voters – and 45 per cent to 33 per cent among Jewish Democrats. The latter figure is particularly eyebrow-raising considering AOC's long paper-trail of anti-Israel views and votes.
Back in 2021, AOC cried on the House floor when a bill providing funding for Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system passed. Then in May 2024, AOC was one of the first – and certainly one of the most influential – US politicians to brand Israel's operations in Gaza a 'genocide'. In 2019, AOC helped back a resolution put forth by fellow 'Squad' member Ilhan Omar defending boycotts, in what was widely seen to be a show of support for the anti-Israel BDS movement. And last October, AOC called upon the US to impose an arms embargo against Israel.
The disconnect between AOC's strident anti-Israel viewpoints and her popularity among Jewish Democrats is striking. It is also alarming – and not just for Schumer, who at 74 is now serving his fifth term in the Senate while contending with a 55 per cent unfavourability rate. The AOC numbers arrive as the Congresswoman makes her clearest stabs yet for national-level leadership, including a potential 2028 run for the White House.
Earlier this spring, AOC joined Bernie Sanders on a cross-country 'Fighting the Oligarchy' tour, which included a stop at the influential Coachella music festival. The tenor of their message is clear: America has 'a government of billionaires, by billionaires and for billionaires'.
Despite the duo's penchant for private jet travel to ferry them from venue to venue, AOC has emerged as a viable player for the presidency. In April, Nate Silver, considered by many as America's leading political pollster, declared AOC to be his pick for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. A Yale Youth poll, meanwhile, placed AOC at a close second among younger voters against former vice-president Kamala Harris in a hypothetical match-up for the White House.
What's most concerning for both Schumer and the Democrats are the fundamentals behind Schumer's decline. From the Left, Schumer has faced attacks for being too centrist, too conciliatory – particularly when he agreed to advance a Republican funding bill in March to avoid a government shutdown. Nearly every House Democrat voted against the bill in an act of united anti-Trump resistance. Schumer's failure to join them led many progressives to call for his resignation. AOC bitingly described Schumer's vote as an 'acquiesce'.
Meanwhile, Jewish voters are turning against the Senator, who they believe has turned against Israel. 'The only thing Chuck Schumer knows about anti-Semitism is how to spread it,' declared a controversial column in the New York Post in March. The complaints against Schumer are myriad: failing to pass the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, reportedly advising Columbia University to 'ignore' the backlash over accusations of anti-Semitism on campus, and even suggesting Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be voted out of office mere months after Hamas's October 7 massacre.
And so, here we are, Schumer is sinking, AOC is surging and their party is desperate for a rebrand. Which is why AOC increasingly holds all the cards. For one thing, her favourability rating holds up well, at least compared to other Democrats. But it's the tenor of AOC 'favourability' that truly makes her a threat. Her base of socialists, minorities, students and social-justice warriors are united by a near obsession with the progressive causes – identity, climate change, economic inequality – that President Trump despises most. Schumer's centrism, on the other hand, has left him looking powerless, futilely seeking compromise with a raging White House hell-bent on dismantling everything the Democrats hold dear.
AOC must know that even she could fall victim to the Left's new purity spiral. She was heckled and branded a 'war criminal' at a Town Hall-style meeting this month for not doing enough to end the Gaza 'genocide'. Which is why, for AOC to keep on winning, she'll need to engage in even more brazen acts of #resistance. That's certainly what her base wants of her. Cult-like in their affection – small donors helped propel AOC to a record $9.6 million fund-raising haul in the first three months of the year – her fans are aggressive, score-settling and confrontational. In other words, they're a lot like Trump supporters, but in reverse – all meta and no Maga.
So does that make AOC the Trump of the Left? While Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker and Rahm Emanuel position themselves as logical, moderate, electable 2028 players, AOC – like Trump – is doubling-down on the radicalism that has got her this far in the first place.
It's working for socialist New York mayor candidate Zohran Mamdani, who has surged to second place in polling for the upcoming election, despite an even more odious anti-Israel record than AOC. Of course succeeding in deep blue Gotham reveals little in regard to a national run. But if the Democrats ultimately decide they need their own 'Trump' to beat Trumpism, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez might be the best (and only) option they have.
David Christopher Kaufman is a New York Post columnist
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

House GOP finalizes tweaks to keep megabill on track in Senate
House GOP finalizes tweaks to keep megabill on track in Senate

Politico

timean hour ago

  • Politico

House GOP finalizes tweaks to keep megabill on track in Senate

House Republicans have finalized changes to the party-line tax and spending package the House passed last month, to keep the bill in compliance with Senate rules. An early copy of the amendment House Republicans plan to adopt this week, first obtained by POLITICO, would make changes to biofuel policy and other provisions. By nixing items the Senate parliamentarian has flagged, the bill will retain its 'privilege' and can pass the Senate without having to overcome the filibuster. House GOP leaders plan to approve the tweaks in the Rules Committee later Tuesday and adopt them on the floor on Wednesday, according to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.

The Protests Are Just Starting
The Protests Are Just Starting

Atlantic

timean hour ago

  • Atlantic

The Protests Are Just Starting

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. For months, as Donald Trump has hollowed out the executive branch, defied courts, and worked to suppress dissent, his critics have rightly worried about the lack of visible public opposition. Democratic Party leaders are still obsessing over the 2024 election; outside organizations are fatigued; and mass protests such as those seen in the early months of Trump's first term have been missing. That began to change over the past few days, as demonstrations arose in Los Angeles over immigration-enforcement operations by federal agents. As they begin to spread to other cities, these protests look like the first mass movement against the second Trump administration. And with events scheduled this weekend to serve as counterprogramming to Trump's birthday military parade, they have the potential to grow. Yet as this moment begins, some members of the anti-Trump coalition worry that these demonstrations will bring about disaster. Protests are messy; even when the majority of participants are peaceful, just a few bad actors can produce instances of violence, and big protests always draw a few bad actors. Observers have also worried about the optics of protesters carrying Mexican flags, lest the protests be seen as unpatriotic or anti-American. One overriding concern is that even minor missteps by Trump's critics will give him an excuse to overreach further. 'Trump is expecting resistance,' my colleague Tom Nichols wrote over the weekend. 'You will not be heroes. You will be the pretext.' These concerns are understandable, and they are offered in good faith by dyed-in-the-wool Trump critics, who don't hesitate to call him a budding authoritarian. They're correct that Trump is welcoming confrontation. Trying to convince anti-Trump allies about the most effective tactics can feel much more productive than appealing to Trump to respect protests or the rule of law, especially because his actions are frequently erratic and irrational. But the focus on specific tactics, or on trying to predict how the president will respond, overlooks how effective large protests have been—not just historically, but also during Trump's first term. The same could be true now. None of this is to excuse violent protests, which are dangerous and destructive, and also usually politically counterproductive in America. Actual violence in Los Angeles appears to be limited and small in scale, and Trump's decision to federalize thousands of National Guard members and deploy hundreds of U.S. Marines is, as I wrote yesterday, both legally dubious and wildly disproportionate. The most heralded victims so far have been some Waymo driverless taxis, and local authorities blamed scattered violence on provocateurs who are tangential to the protests. Most protesters appear to be on the streets simply to witness and to speak out against the administration's immigration raids. Take the president's word for it: Even Trump says the situation is ' very well under control.' The existence of large demonstrations, which are spreading into other cities, is itself a sign of Trump's vulnerability. His turn to the military to try to enforce his will, less than six months into his term, is a gesture of authoritarianism, but it's also an indication of his weak sway over the public. Plenty of experience shows that Trump almost always folds. Besides, Trump definitely wins if people disperse because they don't want to provoke him. Peaceful protests can be very effective at changing policy and public opinion, and the biggest win for Trump might be for people to be so scared of what he'll do next that they do nothing at all. As the journalist Asawin Suebsaeng noted on Sunday, you would be hard-pressed to find Americans counseling protesters in repressive nations—such as Iran or Burma or Hungary—to stop protesting just because their leaders might be spoiling for a fight. Furthermore, gaming out strategy and predicting how things might end here (or anywhere) is very difficult. This applies to everyone involved. Some advising caution are worried that protests will give Trump cover to intensify a crackdown, but he hardly needs an excuse, and his reactions are unpredictable. Meanwhile, people around Trump are very confident that they're in a winning position on immigration. 'We couldn't script this any better,' someone 'close to the White House' told Politico. 'Democrats are again on the '20' side of an 80–20 issue.' But why should anyone believe them? The story of Trump's career is overreach followed by public opposition—including on immigration—and sometimes that opposition sways him. During his first term, Trump reversed his family-separation policy in summer 2018 because of widespread horror. Trump and his advisers were also convinced that protests against police brutality, which turned violent in cities such as Kenosha, Wisconsin, and Portland, Oregon, were going to win them the 2020 election, and they were proved wrong about that. The backlash has come even faster this term. Although Trump won the election with a campaign that focused intensely on immigration enforcement, Americans have been less enthusiastic about the results now that they're experiencing their effects. Lots of people support deporting criminals, but they don't like it when beloved community members such as Carol Hui, the woman whose story became a rallying point for a conservative Missouri town, are removed. (She has since been released. TACO.) In April, a Washington Post / ABC News / Ipsos poll found that a majority of people disapproved of Trump's immigration policies. A CBS News / YouGov poll taken before the L.A. protests found him slightly higher—but at just 50 percent approval. The data journalist G. Elliott Morris finds that coverage of the improper deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador hurt Trump's approval ratings. YouGov polls conducted since the protests began have found that pluralities of Americans disapprove of Trump deploying both the National Guard and the Marines. None of these polls should be taken as gospel, but they should give pause about drawing conclusions as to how the public at large will view what's happening in Los Angeles. They are also a reminder that public opinion is not immutable—it's dynamic and can be shaped. The anti-Trump movement can much more easily figure out what it stands for than it can predict what Trump might do next, or how other people will react. Today's News The Pentagon doubled the number of California National Guard members in Los Angeles and deployed about 700 Marines to the city's protests yesterday. A shooter killed at least 10 people at a high school in Graz, Austria, according to police. The State Department ordered diplomatic missions on Friday to resume processing visas for Harvard University students and exchange visitors. Evening Read The Wyoming Hospital Upending the Logic of Private Equity By Megan Greenwell After years of trying to improve his hospital in Riverton, Wyoming—first as a doctor, then as a board member and volunteer activist—­Roger Gose was ready to give up … 'You want to leave a place better than you found it,' he told me. And for a long time, he felt like he had. But that was before LifePoint Health, one of the biggest rural-hospital chains in the country, saw his hospital as a distressed asset in need of saving through a ruthless search for efficiencies, and before executives at Apollo Global Management, a private-equity firm whose headquarters looms above the Plaza Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, began calling the shots. That was before Gose realized that, in the private-equity world, a hospital was just another widget, a tool to make money and nothing more. More From The Atlantic Culture Break Watch (or skip). Ballerina, the new John Wick spin-off (in theaters now), succeeds as a piece of junky fun —but it also shows the trap of the cinematic side quest, David Sims writes. Examine. As Donald Trump prepares to host the musical Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center, a Victor Hugo scholar explores the real message behind the novel.

Brevard County election 2025 results for Florida Senate District 19, House District 32
Brevard County election 2025 results for Florida Senate District 19, House District 32

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Brevard County election 2025 results for Florida Senate District 19, House District 32

Who are the winners and losers in the June 10, 2025, Brevard County special election? Voters in Brevard County cast ballots with their picks in the Florida Senate District 19 and Florida House District 32 races. The winners of the April 1 Republican primary election faced Democratic candidates in Tuesday's special general election. The Florida Senate District 19 election will fill the seat left vacant by Randy Fine, who resigned to run for Congress representing the Daytona Beach area. Primary winner Republican Debbie Mayfield faced Democrat Vance Ahrens. Florida's House District 32 seat was vacated by Debbie Mayfield, who is seeking to return to the Florida Senate after being term-limited out and winning this seat in November. The Florida Supreme Court ruled that she was eligible to once again seek her former Senate seat in the special election. Republican Brian Hodgers won the primary and faced Democrat Juan Hinojosa in the special general election. ➤ Dig Deeper: Ultimate voter guide to Brevard County June 10, 2025, special general elections Follow along below for the latest election results, continually updated until all ballots are counted. Polls close at 7 p.m. local time. Any voters waiting in line at 7 p.m. will have the opportunity to cast a ballot. Use the Brevard County voter information look-up to check your voter registration and party status. To find your Brevard County polling place, check the voter precinct look-up or your voter information card. To see a sample ballot for your Brevard County precinct, check the county elections office website. Support local journalism by subscribing to Florida Today. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard County election results: Florida D19, House D32

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store