New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday shared a tweet blaming her low favorability numbers in a newly released poll on bigotry and Fox News.
A Siena College poll of New York State voters found that Ocasio-Cortez's favorability is underwater, with 31 percent viewing her favorably and 44 percent viewing her unfavorably. Those results mirror national polling from Gallup and Fox News, which found that Ocasio-Cortez has a net approval rating of -10 and -13 points, respectively.
Ocasio-Cortez notably struggles even with some members of her own party, with 30 percent of New York Democrats viewing her unfavorably. Siena also found that voters are not happy with Ocasio-Cortez's opposition to the New York City-Amazon deal, which two-thirds of New Yorkers supported, according to the poll.
"More people think that Amazon, Governor Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio, the State Senate, and local Queens activists were villains in this saga than they were heroes," wrote pollster Steven Greenberg. "However, voters say the biggest villain was Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Only 12 percent call her hero, while 38 percent label her a villain."
The results garnered significant attention from reporters and media outlets, leading one Ocasio-Cortez fan to say, "It's interesting to see centrists suddenly downplay or ignore the effects of racism, sexism and Fox News targeting when discussing [her] overall approval ratings."
It's interesting to see centrists suddenly downplay or ignore the effects of racism, sexism and Fox News targeting when discussing @AOC's overall approval ratings.
— David Atkins #11Justices (@DavidOAtkins) March 18, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez shared the tweet, and complained, "When 'centrists' care more about the GOP base than the Dem base, bigotry gets legitimized."
When "centrists" care more about the GOP base than the Dem base, bigotry gets legitimized.
This is *the* playbook. GOP does it w/ virtually every Dem figure who isn’t a white male: otherize, demonize + splinter.
It’s vital that we adapt & dismantle this approach, not cow to it. https://t.co/dKlzflqZVn
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 18, 2019
We can’t gloss over it, or quietly consider that the "shrewd" thing to do is nominate someone who won’t be subject to bigoted attacks.
Morally, we can’t give a pass to this dangerous tactic.
But even politically, the Dem base is all the people you demoralize by not standing up.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 18, 2019
This is different than being moderate on policy. I may disagree w/ approach (keeping the ACA as-is w/small tweaks, etc), but at least that’s a policy convo.
But to make decisions based on the political efficacy of a bigoted argument gives that bigotry power, & that’s a problem.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 18, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez had previously blamed white men and Fox News for her poor showing in the Gallup poll in a pair of tweets on Saturday.
If you want to know what subconscious bias looks like, it’s a headline saying "AOC is underwater with every group EXCEPT women, nonwhites, and 18-34 year olds."
So older, conservative white men are considered "everyone" and everyone else is discounted as an exception.
Cool 👍🏽 https://t.co/qkwTknMYhC
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 16, 2019
The reason people know more is bc Fox News has turned into "AOC TMZ" (no offense to TMZ), so awareness is growing w/ GOPers.@JaneMayerNYer has reported deeply on this propaganda machine + it will be aimed at any Dem they want. Nothing changes that.
We can’t be scared by that.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 16, 2019