AOC says McAuliffe lost because he didn't energize a 'progressive base'
WASHINGTON (TND) — Second-term Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., took to social media this week to tell Virginia Democrats their gubernatorial candidate, Terry McAuliffe, lost because his campaign was too moderate.
Conversely, Democratic political strategist James Carville, who has been in politics for roughly 40 years, rebuked that notion, blaming “stupid wokeness” on Democrats' failures in Virginia.
“I know that Virginia was a huge bummer,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a video on Instagram. “And honestly, if anything, I think that the results show the limits of trying to run a fully 100% super moderated campaign that does not excite speak to or energize a progressive base and frankly, we weren’t even really invited to contribute on that race.”
Ocasio-Cortez then accused “moderate Dems” of enabling Republican “race-baiting.” She argued it “demoralizes the base you’re supposed to protect and turn out while also ceding white swing voters to the right w/ inadequate responses or silence.”
On the other hand, longtime veteran political strategist James Carville told PBS NewsHour “what went wrong” was “just stupid wokeness.”
“Don't just look at Virginia and New Jersey. Look at Long Island, look at Buffalo, look at Minneapolis, even look at Seattle, Wash. I mean, this 'defund the police' lunacy, this take Abraham Lincoln's name off of schools. I mean that — people see that," Carville said.
Republicans saw sweeping victories in elections this week. In New York, the GOP won competitive district attorney races in Long Island, and increased its legislative majority in Niagara County. In Minneapolis, Mayor Jacob Frey won re-election after rejecting the “defund the police” movement.
In Seattle, residents elected a Republican city attorney over a former public defender and police abolitionist who tweeted about her “rabid hatred of the police,” whom she has called “thugs” and “scum,” according to The Spokesman-Review. She also reportedly called property destruction a “moral imperative” during times of protest.
"It's just really — has a suppressive effect all across the country on Democrats. Some of these people need to go to a 'woke' detox center or something," Carville added to PBS. "They're expressing a language that people just don't use, and there's backlash and a frustration at that."
Editor's note: The term 'woke' was put in single-quotes in the original headline to this story to point out a colloquialism, not an exact quote.
