Celebrity freshman congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) is not as popular as her many social media admirers would like to believe. In fact, recent polling suggests that AOC is pretty widely despised, even in her home state, and even within her party.
A March 15 Gallup poll, for example, found that just 31 percent of Americans view Ocasio-Cortez favorably, compared to 41 percent who view her unfavorably. It appears that as more people have gotten to know the congresswoman, the less they like her. The last time Gallup surveyed AOC's favorable rating was back in September 2018, prior to her election to Congress, when 50 percent of respondents had no opinion or had never heard of her. That number has shrunk to just 29 percent over the past several months as the congresswoman has aggressively made a name for herself on Capitol Hill.
Gallup's finding are in line with those of a Fox News poll of registered voters conducted in February, which found that Ocasio-Cortez had a favorable rating of just 26 percent, and an unfavorable rating of 39 percent (-13). In that poll, 34 percent of respondents didn't offer an opinion or said they'd never heard of AOC. Respondents had a slightly better view of President Donald Trump, who had a favorable rating of 43 percent, and an unfavorable rating of 54 percent (-11). Ocasio-Cortez did, however, perform better than Socialism, which had a favorable rating of just 25 percent, and an unfavorable rating of 59 percent (-34).
The latest Gallup survey on Hillary Clinton's popularity, from September 2018, found the twice failed presidential candidate was viewed more favorably than Ocasio-Cortez. Clinton's favorable rating was just 36 percent, a record low for HRC, but still better than AOC's most recent number.
Additional polling from Ocasio-Cortez's home state of New York offers a similarly grim assessment of the congresswoman's popularity. Not only is she the among the least favored high-profile New York politician, AOC also has a 30 percent unfavorable rating among New York Democrats, and a favorable rating that fails to crack 50 percent.
what's remarkable is that AOC widely disliked within her own party (among New Yorkers):
47/30 fav among NY *DEMOCRATS*https://t.co/FUGjCXLBC5
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) March 18, 2019
The poll, conducted by the Siena College Research Institute in March, also found that large majorities of New York residents favored Amazon's now scuttled plan to open a second headquarters in Queens, and thought that Amazon's decision to abandon the project—thanks in no small part to Ocasio-Cortez's aggressive opposition—would be bad for New York. Respondents placed the most blame for the Amazon project's failure on AOC—38 percent labeled her a "villain" in the saga, while just 12 percent regarded her as a "hero."