This year, we’ve seen a wave of DSA-aligned candidates running and winning in Democrat Party primaries, either defeating establishment Democrats or ousting incumbent Democrats in the process. I’ve said before that this will be a major problem for the Democrat Party come November because socialism polls so poorly outside of the Democrat Party. If Republicans play their cards right, they can buck history and hold both the House and Senate this year, linking the party to the socialist wing.
But is there a Democrat in particular who stands to benefit from the socialist wave this year? There may be one DSA-aligned Democrat positioning herself to walk away from this mess looking better than ever.
And that’s Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Look, I know, it’s absurd that she’d even be considered a presidential candidate. She’s not exactly bright. But she has polled well despite being a complete airhead in 2028 Democrat primary matchups. So, bear with me.
I recently argued that Democrat leaders are trying to pivot toward the center to survive the midterms. That strategy is not going to work. The most energized candidates in the party right now are aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and their record is not moderate by any definition. They're on tape, on the record, and unapologetic about it.
The DSA's "Workers Deserve More!" platform calls for abolishing the U.S. Senate outright. It would replace the presidency and the Supreme Court with bodies subordinate to Congress and draft an entirely new constitution. The platform also pushes to defund the Department of War, eliminate ICE, and dismantle police "carceral forces." It calls for nationalizing major corporations and industries under public control, imposing steep new taxes on the wealthy, and granting blanket amnesty to every immigrant currently in the country.
That's a platform that will terrify any voter outside of a handful of deep-blue enclaves, and Republican candidates can effectively put their opponents on the spot to either support or disavow those policies… and that’s a lose-lose situation for those Democrats.
So, what does this have to do with AOC? Well, it appears that media commentators and Democrat strategists are now working overtime to rebrand Ocasio-Cortez as a moderate ahead of the midterms, even though her actual record and policy positions remain about as far left as it gets.
Democrat candidates run as moderates and govern as radicals once in office all the time. Govs. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) did it. Heck, Barack Obama claimed to be a uniter during his 2008 campaign as well.
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Fox News’s Jessica Tarlov gave the game away during a podcast interview with Scott Galloway, when she said of AOC, "I mean, she is, now compared to the real core DSA wing, like the far, far-left stuff, like, the Darializa [Avila Chevalier], AOC is a moderate Dem on a comparative basis."
Jessica Tarlov claims AOC now is a "Moderate Dem" as compared to the "core DSA wing."
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) August 10, 2026
Scott Galloway agrees that this is a "fair point."
AOC is a member of NYC DSA.
The gaslighting levels coming in an attempt to rebrand AOC for 2028 are going to be stratospheric. pic.twitter.com/AYypbHSeZu
That's a ridiculous argument. Seriously? Comparing AOC to the "real core DSA wing" to call her a moderate is like comparing DSA members to a socialist dictator like Adolf Hitler and calling them centrists by comparison. It's nonsense. But it's clearly the narrative Democrat strategists and friendly media figures are building right now. This is the play. From the ashes of the DSA insurgency this November, the Democrat Party may look to AOC as the phoenix that rises to save the party in 2028 by putting a Trojan Horse socialist candidate at the top of the ticket.
Of course, there are problems with this strategy. Ocasio-Cortez belongs to the New York City chapter of the DSA and backs the very platform Tarlov is comparing her to. That platform calls for abolishing the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the presidency in favor of a single, centralized, socialist-controlled Congress, along with abolishing police and prisons altogether.
That's what makes the timing so convenient. If the DSA wave sinks Democrat candidates in November the way I suspect it might, Ocasio-Cortez gets to be the socialist who survived, the one Democrat strategists and cable news panels can point to as the reasonable one with lots of name recognition who isn't "crazy like the other ones." Liberal media voices appear to be laying that groundwork right now.
