Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) is an outspoken congresswoman with an ascendant media profile, but that isn’t fully translating into popularity. The reason? Democrats aren’t as easily mesmerized by profile and bluster than their Republican counterparts.
Quinnipiac: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is Unpopular – and Surprisingly Unknown
Telephone polling conducted by Quinnipiac University of 1,358 registered voters pitted Joe Biden, Beto O’Rourke, and Bernie Sanders as the leading candidates for president among Democrats or Democrat-leaning voters. The same poll found Ocasio-Cortez has unfavorable ratings among 36 percent of all those polled. Her favorability ratings among Democrats remains respectable at just under 50 percent. But that doesn’t mean they would vote for her was she eligible to run for president.
Tim Malloy of the Quinnipiac University Poll summed up the Democrats’ situation:
“Most voters either don’t like the firebrand freshman Congresswoman or don’t know who she is… Hungry for a candidate to take on President Donald Trump, Democrats and Democratic leaners put the three B’s, Biden, Bernie and Beto, at the top in a race where age, race and gender take a back seat to electability and shared views.”
Despite the economic pain the president has unleashed on his base, 77 percent of Republicans said they would “definitely vote” for Donald Trump were he to, as assumed, contest the 2020 general election. The anti-globalization protest vote among white rural and working-class voters continues.
How Trump Trumped the Republicans
The unabashed lunacy of the Trump primary-cum-election campaign was premised on a substance that was as minimal as it was offensive. | Source: AP Photo / Andrew Harnik
The unabashed lunacy of the Trump primary-cum-election campaign was premised on a substance that was as minimal as it was offensive. Building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, imprisoning Hillary Clinton, and making America “great again” (for whom it remains unclear) would never fly among a Democratic constituency.
Republican-leaning voters, however, wear different stripes entirely.
Streaks of fascism coupled with intentions to drain a swamp he then proceeded to wade in after victory as he dismantled the democratic institutions that did, in fact, make America great, presented Republican voters with a choice of not showing up or voting for a man they were too ashamed to admit they voted for.
Republican-leaning voters have every reason to feel disgruntled, but their angst is often directed at the wrong culprits. Rural voters blame globalization for ruining their livelihood when in reality, the answers lie closer to home.
Take the USDA allowing manufacturers to label Milk Protein Concentrate (MPC) as milk. MPC is the highly processed, chemically-augmented milk substitute now found in many foods. The impact this has had on dairy farmers has been devastating. The blame lies with state institutions influenced by corporate money and has little to do with Chinese trade deficits. AOC famously spoke of entrenched interests in Washington.
Democrats are Smart Enough to Know that AOC Isn’t Electable in a National Contest
Yet, rural voters overwhelmingly supported the Trump campaign. Ironically, the corporate interests driving the rot are the same people that dine with the Trumps. Republican voters tend to see a cause and effect relationship where none exists.
Democrats and those leaning left want an assured victory over Trump, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez offers many things, but not that. Polling shows 51 percent of Democrats prefer an electable candidate over one who shares their ideals. Democrats know AOC is not electable.
Hopefully, they remember that when she turns 35 in 2024.