Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) knocked her party for failing to even try to court support among Latino voters.
While underscoring her belief that Democrats have been hemorrhaging support among male voters, Ocasio-Cortez raised Democratic failures to make inroads with Latinos as an example of how the party has been dragging its feet in the race to cultivate support among segments of working-class voters more broadly.
‘OVERWHELMINGLY FROM ONE GENERATION’: AOC THROWS SHADE AT DEMOCRATS’ LEADERSHIP
“We’re shedding men, and it is important that we don’t paint this with a broad brush because when we look into this, that is what is going to help us inform a strategy,” she argued on the progressive Pod Save America podcast without elaborating on why she believes Democrats are losing men.
“I can at least say with Latino voters, we’ve never tried as a party. The Democratic Party has not tried in terms of Latino electorates,” she then said.
Lamenting the lack of policy achievements on signature issues for Latino voters, the 33-year-old congresswoman argued shortcomings on the policy front have had repercussions that rippled across the campaign front.
“We really need to step up both in our efforts on [the] campaign but also in our efforts in governance,” she asked. “Where’s our DREAM Act? Where is our immigration reform?”
Throughout the midterm election cycle, many Republican strategists have been optimistic that the party can gain ground with Latino voters.
Ocasio-Cortez bashed Republicans for not having “any qualms about having an anti-immigrant message” and hypothesized that Democrats get scared off from being more forceful on the immigration issue as a result. She contended that the “big tent” nature of the Democratic Party has resulted in some centrist members hampering progress on key issues.
“That lack of clarity makes it hard to win people over,” she added.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
At one point, she highlighted President Joe Biden’s recent announcement of plans to dole out mass pardons for federal marijuana offenses, but she zinged him for excluding individuals who were convicted of marijuana crimes while undocumented from the pardon spree.
“And even recently with President Biden’s marijuana executive order, I very much applaud that he went there, but he exempted people who were convicted if they were convicted while they were undocumented,” Ocasio-Cortez added.
