Ocasio-Cortez mobilizes Democrats against Schumer plan as colleagues privately urge her to consider primary challenge
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Thursday that she plans to mobilize her massive base of followers to oppose what she described as an “acquiesce” by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to accept the House GOP funding bill.
“I think there is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters in Leesburg, Virginia, where House Democrats are huddling for their annual policy retreat. She said she and her fellow Democrats are “texting, calling, sending carrier pigeons,” to mobilize the Democratic base against Schumer’s plan to allow the GOP funding bill to advance.
And she slammed Senate Democrats for their decision to “completely roll over and give up on protecting the Constitution.”
Asked whether Senate Democrats need new leadership, Ocasio-Cortez would say only that she is focused on how to prevent her party from accepting the GOP bill.
“We have time to correct course on this decision. Senate Democrats can vote no. We can correct course, and that is the most important thing in front of us right now,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
The New York Democrat has been among the most vocal Democratic officials nationwide in the push against the House GOP funding bill. Using her social accounts, Ocasio-Cortez has urged fellow Democrats across the country to exert maximum pressure on their own senators on the funding bill, which is the first major point of leverage in President Donald Trump’s second term.
Privately, House Democrats are so infuriated with Schumer’s decision that some have begun encouraging her to run against Schumer in a primary, according to a Democratic member who directly spoke with Ocasio-Cortez about running at the caucus’ policy retreat. Multiple Democrats in the Congressional Progressive Caucus and others directly encouraged Ocasio-Cortez to run on Thursday night after Schumer’s announcement, this member said.
The member said that Democrats in Leesburg were “so mad” that even centrist Democrats were “ready to write checks for AOC for Senate,” adding that they have “never seen people so mad.”
Asked by CNN about fellow Democrats encouraging her to challenge Schumer, Ocasio-Cortez declined to answer and said she was focused on keeping Democrats from backing the funding bill: “We still have an opportunity to correct course here, and that is my number one priority.”
But speaking to reporters, Ocasio-Cortez did not hold back on her criticism of Senate Democrats for backing out of a vote that all but one battleground House Democrat was willing to take.
“There are members of Congress who have won Trump-held districts in some of the most difficult territory in the United States who walked the plank and took innumerable risks in order to defend the American people, in order to defend Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare,” she said. “Just to see Senate Democrats even consider acquiescing to Elon Musk, I think is a huge slap in the face. And I think there is a wide sense of betrayal if things proceed as currently planned.”
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