Let’s play a guessing game: I’m thinking of a famous Democrat. But not just any Democrat.
This particular Democrat is an elected official with (obvious) presidential aspirations. S/he gives an above-average speech, is “conventionally attractive,” and earned coast-to-coast fame by being snarky as hell on social media. All over the country, starry-eyed liberals giggled with gleeful appreciation at every “mean tweet” and nasty insult.
So who am I thinking of: New York Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez or California Gov. Gavin Newsom?
If the two are utterly indistinguishable, that’s the point: Gavin Newsom is the new AOC.
Only four months earlier, AOC was heralded as the 2028 frontrunner. Data guru Nate Silver tapped her as the early favorite to win the Democrats’ presidential nomination. She was even declared the “face of the Democratic Party.” (And I gotta say, as faces go, not too shabby! When your choices are Barbara Mikulski, Mazie Hirono, or AOC, yeah, go with AOC.)
As recently as four weeks ago, Democratic Party advisor Doug Schoen, with his oft-impeccable timing, wrote an op-ed for Fox News, “Why AOC could take the White House in 2028 and Kamala Harris won’t.”
And then… crickets and tumbleweeds.
Ever since, AOC has gone the way of Hawk Tuah: A moment ago, she was everywhere; the next, she’s yesterday’s news, faded from existence like a fart in a hurricane.
Turns out AOC wasn’t a “choice” or an “echo.” She was simply a fad.
And today, Gavin Newsom is the next big thing.
The latest opinion polls were released this morning. The new Democratic frontrunner isn’t the “conventionally attractive” New York congresswoman, but the “conventionally attractive” Californian, Gavin Newsom: “August 2025 National Poll: Newsom Surges Ahead in 2028 Democratic Nomination Contest.”
Between June and August, Newsom’s support more than doubled, rising from 12% to 25%.
Meanwhile, AOC’s support plummeted to just 4%!
“Newsom’s recent gains are driven largely by younger voters 18-29: after splitting this group in June (39% to 38%), he now holds a clear lead, 45% to 28%,” [Spencer] Kimball said.
No longer the frontrunner, AOC now trails Gavin Newsom (25%), Pete Buttigieg (16%), Kamala Harris (11%), and Gov. Josh Shapiro (5%). Currently, she’s tied with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker for fifth place(!).
She’s been abandoned by the younger, boisterous voters who had propelled her to frontrunner status just four months earlier!
Campaign managers and political advisors think in terms of lanes: There’s the “establishment” lane, the “outsider” lane, the “minority” lane, and so on. In a crowded field of contenders, mission #1 is ALWAYS to clear your lane.
You’ve gotta do that before you do anything else. Otherwise, your voting bloc — your “lane” — will be cannibalized by your category peers. It’ll kill your chances of solidifying your gains and building any momentum.
AOC and Gavin Newsom are actually in the same lane.
Recommended: How Liberals Lost the Gerrymandering PR War
If you think like a liberal, this doesn’t make a lick of sense: AOC is a young, plucky Latina congresswoman from New York who’s aligned herself with uber-socialist Bernie Sanders. Gavin Newsom is the quintessential white “cisgender” male (and member-in-good-standing of the dreaded Patriarchy). Since liberals place people in ethnic and/or gender categories — viewing the world through a rigid “1619 Project” prism — their expectation was that white male candidates would be in the white male “lane” and female candidates would be in the female “lane,” and not until the very end would they meet.
Newsom is a white male, so he was supposed to battle against guys like Josh Shapiro, Tim Walz, JB Pritzker, and Rahm Emanuel. AOC was supposed to spar with Kamala Harris, Gretchen Whitmer, and (probably) Jasmine Crockett.
That was supposed to be the process!
But that didn’t happen, because the liberals’ worldview isn’t accurate: The “lane” leftwing voters really, truly care about isn’t tied to skin color, gender, or sexual orientation.
Instead, it’s attitudinal.
I’ll give you an example: Last week was White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller’s birthday. He hit the big 4-0.
This is what Newsom’s office posted on X:
Happy birthday, @StephenM! Sorry we missed your big day yesterday. pic.twitter.com/e1cjLqcPsu
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) August 24, 2025
Not too long ago, AOC was the undisputed Queen of the “Mean Girls” tweets. Remember these gems:
Better than being a criminal who betrays our country. https://t.co/UnShA6gcQQ
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 4, 2019
Oh no! They discovered our vast conspiracy to take care of children and save the planet 😂 pic.twitter.com/XYWXmi3Xyk
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 14, 2018
But it’s been a very long time since anything she’s posted has gone viral, hasn’t it? Instead, she seems to be trying to enhance her legislative “bona fides” with webinars and/or rebrand herself as a serious, policy-minded polemicist.
Meanwhile, Newsom posts something snide, nasty, and snarky every single day!
And in the process, he inadvertently disproved a key tenet of liberalism: The biggest “lane” in the Democrats’ 2028 primary has nothing to do with race, gender, or “demographic distinctions.”
It’s 100% attitudinal: Who can be the meanest?
The old Queen of Mean is dead. Long live the new one.
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