Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy made an interesting prediction during a recent interview on Fox News: that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is the future of the Democratic Party.
McCarthy, who served as speaker for nine months in 2023 before being voted out, made an appearance on Jesse Watters Primetime where he attempted to analyze the state of the Democratic Party and its leadership, as well as its future prospects.
Initially asked about DNC vice chair David Hogg’s group Leaders We Deserve and its $20 million campaign to primary House Democrats in safe seats in order to facilitate the entry of younger people into politics, McCarthy said the move was “unheard of” and an example of the “civil war” currently taking place inside the Democratic Party.
He drew comparisons with Ocasio-Cortez, telling Watters, “Remember, AOC did this exact same thing a couple years ago and the party tried to shut her down when she would primary other members in Congress.” He continued, “But she raised the most money of any member in Congress in the last quarter. She’s getting the biggest crowds.”
Ocasio-Cortez had her biggest three-month fundraising period ever this year, raising almost $9.6 million in the first quarter. She has been campaigning with Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) as part of their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour that has seen them visit six states across the western U.S. since late March.
McCarthy continued, sharing his prediction for the future of the Democratic Party: “They’re going to fight to see who becomes leader of this party. Right now, it’s really AOC, and Bernie Sanders… They’re going to run against Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Schumer and Hakeem. That will be a motivating factor.”
He continued, “They will raise more money running against Democrats than they will running against Republicans, and whoever comes out of that will become the leader of the Democratic Party.”
McCarthy’s comments may have been made partly in jest, but they echo sentiments political analyst and pollster Nate Silver made earlier this week when he predicted in his newsletter that Ocasio-Cortez is currently the candidate most likely to top the 2028 Democratic presidential ticket. Podcaster Galen Druke argued that Ocasio-Cortez “has broad appeal across the Democratic Party,” and pointed to a recent Yale University poll that found she had incredibly high favorability ratings amongst Democrats, which Silver agreed with, though he noted that Ocasio-Cortez isn’t “sure to run.”
While many hopeful young progressives see Ocasio-Cortez as an example of how the Democratic Party can move left, McCarthy sees her rise as a portent of doom: the doom in question being socialism. He told Watters, “Remember, AOC and Bernie Sanders are socialists. They literally registered as socialists. AOC came into the party campaigning for Bernie Sanders. This is how far this party has moved and it shows. They are more at home going to a Latin American country than fighting for hard-working American[s].”
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