In early 2020, nine months before the presidential election, New York Magazine)" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/01/aoc-first-year-in-washington.html__;!!LsXw!VGS-TfDWepEJM1zDrwlEvNl9FOuUKAZYMln8ur0rul50M1E5A9mALEf5lmfCn37qNNxFEhzlToP3-cSyWkNlVDMZH_lSXZxdwZVS$">New York Magazine profiled one of the newest House Democrats and asked them what they thought of a possible Joe Biden presidency. “Oh God,” they replied, “In any other country, Joe Biden and I would not be in the same party, but in America we are.”
Earlier this week, as Biden struggled to survive the fallout from his disastrous presidential debate performance, the same member of Congress told reporters)" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4761323-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-backing-joe-biden-post-debate/__;!!LsXw!VGS-TfDWepEJM1zDrwlEvNl9FOuUKAZYMln8ur0rul50M1E5A9mALEf5lmfCn37qNNxFEhzlToP3-cSyWkNlVDMZH_lSXY-1bkKo$">told reporters outside the Capitol. “The matter is closed. Joe Biden is our nominee. He is not leaving this race. He is in this race, and I support him.”
Welcome to the changing face of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
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Her rise from political outsider to D.C. insider has not pleased everyone, and her critics on the left have been especially voluble. This week the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) group withdrew its conditional endorsement of Ocasio-Cortez, claiming she is not supportive enough of the Palestinian position in efforts to end the war in Gaza.
At first as a Congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez leaned into her radical roots and branding, including in New York in June 2018. But her path has changed in recent months.
David 'Dee' Delgado/ReutersThis was a significant break. In 2018—when Ocasio-Cortez stunned US politics by unseating a veteran, and senior, Democrat in a primary race for a House seat in NY—it was grassroots organizations like the DSA, alongside the Justice Democrats, who played a key role in helping organize, canvass and mobilize support.
It’s worth remembering how sensational and unexpected her victory was, as is reflected in reporting of her victory in June 2018 in the New York Times)" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/26/nyregion/joseph-crowley-ocasio-cortez-democratic-primary.html__;!!LsXw!VGS-TfDWepEJM1zDrwlEvNl9FOuUKAZYMln8ur0rul50M1E5A9mALEf5lmfCn37qNNxFEhzlToP3-cSyWkNlVDMZH_lSXSm4vzz5$">New York Times: “Mr. Crowley was defeated by a 28-year-old political newcomer, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a former organizer for Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign, who had declared it was time for generational, racial and ideological change.”
She had come out of nowhere. And yet, 24 hours later, the same news organization declared that “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Emerges as a Political Star.)" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/nyregion/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-bio-profile.html__;!!LsXw!VGS-TfDWepEJM1zDrwlEvNl9FOuUKAZYMln8ur0rul50M1E5A9mALEf5lmfCn37qNNxFEhzlToP3-cSyWkNlVDMZH_lSXY7nbKMx$">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Emerges as a Political Star.” As Harold Wilson, the former British prime minister famously said, “A week is a long time in politics.”
The old Ocasio-Cortez was at the center of the Democratic Socialists of America and the Justice Democrats’ attempt to reframe debates, including around defunding ICE.
Jonathan Ernst/ReutersThe DSA’s statement is merely the latest criticism from the left that claims that Ocasio-Cortez has compromised her radical politics in exchange for a seat at the top table.
One uncharacteristic misstep on her road from political outsider to insider was her appearance at the Met Gala in 2021 when she arrived in a Tax the Rich gown. This provoked a storm of criticism from the left and right. Donald Trump Jr. hit out at her hypocrisy in sending a message about taxing the rich “while she’s hanging out with a bunch of wealthy leftwing elites.”
In 2021 the politician caused a social media storm of praise and condemnation when she wore a “Tax the Rich” dress to the Met Gala.
Mario Anzuoni/ReutersOn the left there was an equally furious response. Briahna Gray)" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/15/style/aoc-met-gala-dress.html__;!!LsXw!VGS-TfDWepEJM1zDrwlEvNl9FOuUKAZYMln8ur0rul50M1E5A9mALEf5lmfCn37qNNxFEhzlToP3-cSyWkNlVDMZH_lSXTz1ewzH$">Briahna Gray, the former national press secretary for Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2020 campaign, said the response was, in part, born from disappointment with her perceived lack of progress on progressive issues, “People are disappointed in her behavior outside of this context, and this seems to be reflective of a lack of commitment that has been demonstrated in a purely political context.”
This was politics as theater—but the critics weren’t amused. And, increasingly, Ocasio-Cortez has made a very deliberate shift from firebrand tactics and social media provocations to working the levers of power on Capitol Hill.
She secured a senior position on a powerful House committee and learned to work with allies on the left and right (among them the ultra-MAGA Floridian Rep. Matt Gaetz, in crafting a bill that would ban lawmakers from owning stocks). This is a world away from the day, in her first week in the House in 2018, when she was among a group of protesters who occupied then-minority leader Nancy Pelosi’s office to demand more action on climate change.
Ocasio-Cortez has acknowledged the change and explained how and why it had to happen. Stung by the hostility she faced from Congressional Democrats, who seemed to take umbrage at this young, demonstrative woman of color, she gradually re-thought how she could make headway, not just headlines.
The prickly relationship between AOC and Nancy Pelosi as House minority leader then speaker has changed markedly. Pelosi had dismissed AOC and other members of the so-called squad as speaking only for themselves.
Office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi/ReutersShe had a fractious (at best) relationship with Nancy Pelosi, who seemed singularly unimpressed by her and her fellow Squad members. In an interview with the New York Times)" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/06/opinion/sunday/nancy-pelosi-pride-parade.html__;!!LsXw!VGS-TfDWepEJM1zDrwlEvNl9FOuUKAZYMln8ur0rul50M1E5A9mALEf5lmfCn37qNNxFEhzlToP3-cSyWkNlVDMZH_lSXdIXhE_j$">New York Times in 2019, Pelosi said, “All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world. But they don’t have any following. They’re four people, and that’s how many votes they got.”
In another biting putdown, a senior aide to Pelosi, when asked what the veteran leader really thought of Ocasio-Cortez)" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/04/15/nancy-pelosi-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-481704__;!!LsXw!VGS-TfDWepEJM1zDrwlEvNl9FOuUKAZYMln8ur0rul50M1E5A9mALEf5lmfCn37qNNxFEhzlToP3-cSyWkNlVDMZH_lSXUkbFly9$">thought of Ocasio-Cortez revealed, “Nancy doesn’t have much patience for people who don’t know what they don’t know.”
To negotiate the byzantine—and often embittered—world of Capitol politics, Ocasio-Cortez 2.0 started to emerge.
In a Q&A last year headlined Alexandra Ocasioo-Cortez on How She Has Changed)" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/30/us/politics/aoc-third-term-congress.html*:*:text=What*20is*20the*20thing*20that,when*20President*20Trump*20was*20elected.__;I34lJSUlJSUlJQ!!LsXw!VGS-TfDWepEJM1zDrwlEvNl9FOuUKAZYMln8ur0rul50M1E5A9mALEf5lmfCn37qNNxFEhzlToP3-cSyWkNlVDMZH_lSXUn-7XIo$">Alexandra Ocasioo-Cortez on How She Has Changed, she was forthright about this awakening “I had to prove to this world of Washington that I was serious and skilled, and that I wasn’t just here to make a headline, but that I was here to engage in this process in a skilled and sophisticated way. That I did my homework, so to speak.”
The new version of AOC is a more subtle Capitol Hill warrior, as demonstrated as she whispers to Jamei Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.
Evelyn Hockstein/ReutersIn doing the homework, some marked it down.
A year ago New York Magazine ran a long, scathing piece headlined “AOC Is Just a Regular Old Democrat Now”)" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/07/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-is-just-a-regular-old-democrat-now.html__;!!LsXw!VGS-TfDWepEJM1zDrwlEvNl9FOuUKAZYMln8ur0rul50M1E5A9mALEf5lmfCn37qNNxFEhzlToP3-cSyWkNlVDMZH_lSXVlebbso$">“AOC Is Just a Regular Old Democrat Now”, in which the writer criticized her for “consistent fealty to Democratic Party leadership,” and as someone who is “increasingly comfortable with leaving her past radical branding behind.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s journey involves a difficult balance. As the writers of a lengthy profile in Politico charting her journey over the last six years, pointed out, “Ocasio-Cortez’s new profile also isn’t without risk. The Democratic base doesn’t typically reward an ability to work the inside levers of Congress. But the influence she can accrue by playing Congress’ inside track may prove to be as potent as the saturation-level media exposure she would forgo in the process.”
Ocasio-Cortez is aware of that balance, and the journey she is on. As she said last year, “I think that perhaps some of the things that would describe me in this moment might be: evolving, learning, challenging myself)" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/30/us/politics/aoc-third-term-congress.html__;!!LsXw!VGS-TfDWepEJM1zDrwlEvNl9FOuUKAZYMln8ur0rul50M1E5A9mALEf5lmfCn37qNNxFEhzlToP3-cSyWkNlVDMZH_lSXaQIShNf$">evolving, learning, challenging myself.” And in challenging herself, she is also, increasingly, being challenged.
