BY SCUTTLING THE AMAZON DEAL, ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ JUST OPENED HERSELF UP TO A PRIMARY CHALLENGE:
This afternoon, a spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez said she would not be taking any interviews. One can see why. But the real question is whether this could hurt her politically. In fact, there is good reason to believe that this debacle has opened the door to a potential primary challenge. Given that almost the entire New York Democratic Party machine, from Mayor Bill de Blasio to Governor Andrew Cuomo were desperate for the Amazon deal; a challenge to AOC might well attract some serious backers.
And the polls back it up. According to a recent Sienna College poll, a majority of New Yorkers supported the deal, an even bigger majority in Queens, the very borough where the HQ would have been located. Moreover, 70 percent of black New Yorkers and 81 percent of Hispanic New Yorkers wanted Amazon in Gotham. Both demographic groups suffer from higher unemployment than the rest of the city. As Daily News Columnist Rob George put it in Twitter, it was “AOC vs. POC.”
Exit quote: “‘Ocasio-Cortez Drove Away 25,000 Jobs’ isn’t a bad campaign slogan.”
Related: Civil War on the Left, Ch. 65: It’s an Amazon Out There!