Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will not pay dues to the Democrats’ House campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, saying she would contribute money directly to candidates she supports.
Many of them aren’t incumbent House members.
Asked by The Hill if she intended to pay dues to the House Democratic campaign arm this cycle, Ocasio-Cortez replied, “I don’t think so.”
Ocasio-Cortez, whose unexpected win in a 2018 primary against longtime incumbent Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) propelled her to political stardom in progressive circles, has emerged as one of the Democratic Party’s most prolific fundraisers in the House.
In the third quarter of 2019, she raised more money than any other House Democrat, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Her most recent federal filing shows that she raked in more than $1.4 million between July 1 and Sept. 30.
Ocasio-Cortez has spoken critically of the DCCC in the past, particularly after it began sidelining vendors who work with candidates seeking to challenge incumbent Democrats in primaries.
AOC’s refusal to support her own party’s campaign committee shows that she hasn’t quite gotten the idea yet. She can’t be a party of one nor can she shape the party into her own rigid, ideological image.
The woman who constantly rails about “diversity” doesn’t want diversity of thought.
She said that instead of paying the DCCC dues — about $250,000 for the 2019-2020 election cycle — she would seek to give directly to Democratic candidates.
“We are trying to raise the equivalent of my dues directly to other members,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Hill. She said the money she has raised has so far gone to backing House Democrats, as well as nonincumbent candidates.
A spokesperson for the DCCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fox News reported Friday that Ocasio-Cortez’s plan to withhold dues had rankled some congressional Democrats who worried the move could hurt the party’s efforts to keep control of the House.
Lockstep ideology is the hobgoblin of democracy. Inevitably, someone tries to enforce their ideas at the point of a gun. Sure, everyone without a spine will fall in line, but at what cost?
This is what happens when voters elect ignorant people. They don’t know enough to fear the logical outcomes of what they propose. AOC may be lionized for suggesting a “Green New Deal,” but the world she wants to create is a nightmare of shortages and hunger.
She and her fellow socialists must be stopped. And those Democrats who recognize that and stand up to her should be applauded.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member