Democrat ousted by AOC casts doubt on her as national candidate

Former Democratic congressman Joe Crowley, who lost his seat to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York’s 2018 Democratic primary, questioned on Wednesday whether the progressive congresswoman would be able to appeal to moderates and Republicans as a national candidate.

Crowley appeared on CNN’s “Laura Coates Live” and said that Democrats need a presidential candidate in 2028 that has the ability to “go beyond” their base and appeal to moderates and Republicans. He questioned whether the self-identified Democratic socialist, Ocasio-Cortez, is the right fit for the job.

While Crowley acknowledged that the New York congresswoman is a “great talent,” and recognized her ability to connect with the party’s base, he had doubts about whether she has the capacity to reach voters across party lines.

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“I think that what she‘s doing is speaking in no small part, as Bernie Sanders is, to the base of our party. And we need to maintain that base. We need to turn them out in the general election as well,” Crowley said. 

The former congressman continued: “But in order to win many of these seats in the House of Representatives, we need to go beyond our base. We have to appeal to moderates. We have to — we have to actually appeal to some Republicans to vote — to cross over and vote for a Democrat.”

Crowley fears that Ocasio-Cortez, known for her fiery stances on issues such as Medicare for all, free college tuition and the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), will have a difficult time appealing to Republican voters.

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“We need to keep in mind, in order to win back the House of Representatives, we have to take seats that are presently held by Republicans. And to do that, you have to go to the moderate, or you have to appeal to Republicans,” Crowley asserted.

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Ocasio-Cortez has yet to make her presidential ambitions known, but many politicos, including FiveThirtyEight founder and prominent pollster Nate Silver, are predicting that she will be the Democratic Party’s nominee in the 2028 election.