It was a decision that some say will make or break political loyalty and divide the progressive left.
Last week, prominent New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed President Joe Biden’s bid for a second term, pitting her against former ardent supporters and long-shot candidates alike.
AOC’s announcement, which she made on the popular left-wing podcast Pod Save America, has stirred up controversy among progressives, many of whom feel she has sold out her radical politics to the more centrist, establishment faction of the Democratic party.
Briahna Joy Gray, a former senior staffer for Senator Bernie Sanders, was quick to respond to the news.
“Endorsing Joe Biden now is a betrayal of progressive interests,” Gray tweeted. “It was true of Bernie Sanders’ endorsement & its true of AOC.”
Democrats appear split over the president, with a recent poll revealing that 51 percent of them do not want Biden to run again in 2024. Among Americans overall, 70 percent oppose a Biden campaign.
Despite this, AOC has praised Biden’s progress in office and pointed to the limitations of the United States Senate – in which Democrats currently hold a slim majority – for thwarting the implementation of the progressive agenda.
“I think he’s done quite well, given the limitations that we have,” she said. “And, of course, the Inflation Reduction Act was a massive step in terms of our climate agenda.”
AOC endorsing Biden is exactly wat I saw coming. Nothing about this is surprising. She’s a con & a fraud who lied her way to DC. It’s a shame that so called “Leftists” still support this tool. Anyone “Leftist” still supporting anyone in the Dem party is deeply unserious. https://t.co/o3LGHzJkUY
— ✊🏾🇱🇷MisFitBlackGirl💁🏿♀️LIB_QN32☭ (@LibQn32) July 8, 2023
Yet, the so-called ‘progressive left’ has been vocal about the way Ocasio-Cortez has gone from a once radical thinker to a supporter of the establishment. Numerous accounts on Twitter have come out against AOC, calling her ‘a con & a fraud’ who is ‘deeply unserious.’
Others have lamented what they feel is the Representative’s move toward the political middle in the last five years.
The backlash has not ended with Democrats, as the Republican field vying for the 2024 presidential nomination has grown to include former PresidentDonald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Senator Tim Scott, former Governor Chris Christie, former Vice President Mike Pence and more.
Following AOC’s announcement, the White House officially declared Biden’s official bid for a second term. The Democratic field of long-shot candidates, which includes Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., looks to be up against a wall, with only weeks left for them to make their voices heard.
Only time will tell how effective Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement of Biden will be, though one thing is for certain: the progressive left is up in arms.
