Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) said during a recent town hall that Republicans regularly call any election loss "illegitimate."
Ocasio-Cortez said during her appearance last weekend that Republicans were routinely denying election results, which she called a hallmark of "tyranny." A number of prominent members of her own party have said that fraud and cheating marred, or even invalidated, Democrats' recent gubernatorial losses in Georgia and Florida, as well as Hillary Clinton's defeat in the 2016 presidential election.
"It's quite tragic and it's very sad that it's devolved to the point that any election they lose is illegitimate, and any election they win means they can govern with impunity," Ocasio-Cortez said. "That is almost the definition or one of the hallmark aspects of authoritarianism."
Ocasio-Cortez has repeatedly praised Democrat Stacey Abrams, the Georgia gubernatorial candidate who never conceded her 2018 loss in spite of losing by more than 54,000 votes to Republican Brian Kemp. Abrams claimed Kemp engaged in systematic voter suppression. Democratic presidential candidates, including Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), repeated her complaints.
Abrams is not the only high-profile candidate whose loss Democrats have contested. Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum suggested in March that he would have beaten Republican Ron DeSantis if there had been a proper vote count. Gillum conceded his defeat the night of the election, then retracted his concession, and then conceded again when a recount showed him more than 30,000 votes behind his opponent.
Similarly, Democrats have cried foul over Hillary Clinton's 2016 loss to Donald Trump since the day of the election. Clinton has been among the most vocal objectors, calling Trump an "illegitimate president" who knows he stole the election with Russian assistance.