Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is arguing that Democratic candidates should be judged by what they say today rather than rhetoric from the coronavirus era, even as her own political rise was closely tied to many of the policies and movements associated with the progressive left.
Ocasio-Cortez was asked Sunday by ABC News’s Jonathan Karl about Wisconsin Democrat gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong’s past positions, including Hong’s call to “cancel Thanksgiving.”
Ocasio-Cortez said Hong has “moved away from it” before invoking a phrase used by New York City Council member Chi Ossé.
“And I have a local city councilman that has this saying that ‘Woke 1 was crazy,’” Ocasio-Cortez said as she and Karl laughed. “And I think that what’s important is that we have to assess what a candidate is saying now.”
Ossé later shared the clip on X and wrote, “Woke 1 was crazyyyy, Madame President.”
Karl then pointed to Ocasio-Cortez’s own former support for abolishing the police and asked whether the progressive movement had gone too far during that period.
“Well, you know, I think that during this time and during, especially during COVID, there was a huge opening of the Overton window,” Ocasio-Cortez responded. “We were shut down. There was some of the highest unemployment rates that we have seen because of those shutdowns. And I think that the doors were really open in trying to entertain any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place.”
She described those discussions as “quite fruitful” but added that “during lockdown, of course, rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today.”
“And I’m grateful that these candidates have the opportunity to present who they are to their electorate and what they’re campaigning on in this moment,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez has not endorsed Hong. She told Karl her attention is directed toward federal races.
“My focus has been in winning back the Congress, winning back the House, and positioning ourselves to have the best chance possible to win the Senate,” she said.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), another prominent figure in the socialist movement, has likewise declined to back Hong ahead of Wisconsin’s August 11 primary.
Asked on Pod Save America whether he would endorse Hong, Sanders responded, “I don’t think so.”
Sanders said he met Hong “a couple of years ago” and described her as “very, very nice,” but said he was “not that familiar” with the gubernatorial contest to succeed term-limited Democrat Gov. Tony Evers.
“We have not gotten involved in many governors’ races… My major concern right now is seeing that we have a Senate and a House that is going to stand up to President Trump,” Sanders said.
Sanders has endorsed candidates in congressional races around the country and previously supported Troy Jackson, the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, when Jackson was running for governor.
“That’s really where my focus is,” Sanders said. “So as of now, we have really not been involved in that race.”
Hong was directly questioned at a recent press conference about the absence of endorsements from Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders.
“I have so much respect for the senator and the congresswoman, and they are working tirelessly to make sure that we can flip Congress and the Senate and get Democrats wins in the midterms,” Hong responded. “I look forward to conversations with them about that, too.”
Asked whether the lack of endorsements showed that Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders did not believe she could win the battleground state, Hong said, “You know, a gubernatorial race is different from federal elections, and I think that we are focused on making sure to reach every single voter that we can up until those polls close. And that’s what we’re focusing on right now.”
Hong has sought to distance herself from several of her earlier positions. In 2021, she wrote, “Police exist to uphold white supremacy. Defund then abolish. Reform can’t be an option.” Ahead of the primary, she told Fox News that “people can evolve,” adding, “The governor cannot defund the police, and I won’t defund the police.”
Hong has also addressed a since-deleted 2020 post calling to “Cancel Thanksgiving,” saying on CNN that Thanksgiving can be “incredibly painful for many people” but that “views can evolve.”
Other resurfaced posts include Hong saying she left a Culver’s because there were “to [sic] many old white people who didn’t think we spoke english [sic],” complaining about Christmas imagery and fireworks, calling Halloween “not my thing,” and criticizing Valentine’s Day as another day when “capitalism tells you how to show love.”
Hong has also supported taxpayer-funded gender-affirming care, including for transgender youth, pledged to veto legislation she believes harms transgender people, and called hospitals’ withdrawal of such care for minors “cowardly.”
Breitbart News has additionally reported that Hong has called for abolishing the U.S. Senate and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), ending Wisconsin’s school-choice program, and establishing publicly owned grocery stores. If she wins the Democratic primary, she would likely face Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in the general election.
Ocasio-Cortez’s “Woke 1 was crazy” remark contrasts with her own record as one of the progressive movement’s most prominent champions.
After Democratic strategist James Carville blamed “stupid wokeness” for election losses in 2021, Ocasio-Cortez rejected the criticism, arguing that “woke” had become “a derogatory euphemism for civil rights & justice” and warning Democrats against distancing themselves from racial justice issues.
Her 2018 campaign platform included Medicare for All, housing as a human right, a federal jobs guarantee, an assault weapons ban, abolishing ICE, and sweeping climate policies. The radical leftwing Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) helped promote her campaign through canvassing and phone banking, and a DSA National Political Committee member celebrated her victory as part of a “political revolution.”
Ocasio-Cortez later backed Justice Democrats’ effort to recruit primary challengers against Democratic incumbents and, amid criticism of the Green New Deal in 2019, told opponents, “Until then, we’re in charge — and you’re just shouting from the cheap seats.”
She also defended the phrase “menstruating people” in 2021 and declared the following year, “Gender is fluid. Language is fluid,” while dismissing concerns from Democrats that terms such as “Latinx” could hurt the party electorally.
In 2021, Ocasio-Cortez also attended the Met Gala wearing a designer dress emblazoned with “Tax the Rich” at the invitation-only event, where tickets were reported to cost about $35,000.
Her ties to the socialist movement also extend to Sanders; Ocasio-Cortez worked as an organizer for his 2016 presidential campaign, while the DSA has backed Sanders’ campaigns for decades.
Years before saying candidates should be judged only by what they say now, Ocasio-Cortez was asked in 2019 how much she cared about pushback from Democratic leaders. “I think it’s zero,” she responded, adding that social movements “should be the moral compass of our politics.”
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