{"id":43343,"date":"2026-08-13T15:35:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T10:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43343"},"modified":"2026-08-13T15:35:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T10:35:53","slug":"ocasio-cortez-signals-democratic-intention-to-move-on-from-woke-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43343","title":{"rendered":"Ocasio-Cortez signals Democratic intention to move on from woke era"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/ocasiocortezalexandria_072326gn03_w.jpg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n        <iframe id=\"instaread_iframe\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Audio Article\" style=\"display:block\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\"><\/iframe>\n    <\/p>\n<p><\/instaread-player><\/p>\n<p>When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) was asked Sunday about some of the more inflammatory\u00a0comments and positions from the left flank of the Democratic Party, the congresswoman quoted a New York City Council member to\u00a0make her point.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWoke 1 was crazy,\u201d Ocasio-Cortez said, echoing what the council member, Chi Oss\u00e9, has said, before laughing along with ABC\u2019s Jonathan Karl during an appearance on\u00a0\u201cThis Week.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>The moment, political observers say, was consequential because while she borrowed the phrase, Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s laugh underscored a shift of sorts by a Democratic Party that is trying to figure out how to move on from the woke era.<\/p>\n<p>It is a party that seemingly wants to rebuild itself with progressive positions but does not want to be defined by the most extreme examples of cancel culture.<\/p>\n<p>To put it simply, the party wants to stick to its roots without being accused of wanting to cancel Thanksgiving, a position Francesca Hong, the democratic socialist gubernatorial candidate in Wisconsin who lost her primary Tuesday, once took online.<\/p>\n<p>Hong, who lost the race by a small margin to moderate David Crowley, spent the final days of the campaign overexplaining and walking back the comments that ultimately ended up defining her campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re explaining, you\u2019re losing,\u201d one Democratic strategist said. \u201cThe comments she made, even if they were in the deep past, did her in. They became headlines today. And right or wrong, she was tagged to them and it hurt her campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no question Democrats have faced a reckoning with voters over the excesses of woke. One of President Trump\u2019s most successful ads of the 2024 cycle offered a nod to the issue, saying Democratic presidential nominee \u201cKamala [Harris] is for they\/them\u201d while \u201cTrump is for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>The rhetoric was focused on issues involving the transgender community, but the message may have resonated well beyond it.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans reacted to Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s woke remarks with a bit of incredulity, while saying they weren\u2019t going to let her laugh it off.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAOC walking back her support for wokeism is peak revisionist history,\u201d Republican strategist Brian Seitchik said, referring to the lawmaker by a nickname. \u201cShe wasn\u2019t some innocent bystander who got swept up in the insanity. She was one of the loudest and most recognizable ringleaders.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cNext she\u2019ll tell us she has a \u2018Back the Blue\u2019 sticker on her Prius and\u00a0spent\u00a02020\u00a0imploring Democrats\u00a0to give the police more money,\u201d Setichik\u00a0added. \u201cAOC must think American citizens are stupid if she believes anyone is buying this fiction.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Republican strategist Doug Heye said Republicans will hold her accountable because she was at the forefront of the progressive movement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe zany cast of characters she has inspired may stay (Mamdani} or go (Hong), but she was the tip of the spear and remains a strong fundraiser for the GOP,\u201d Heye said in a text, referring to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Francesca Hong.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr4_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Some Democrats say the conversation Ocasio-Cortez is a part of is deeply necessary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s totally appropriate for any Democratic elected official to have some reflection and look back and say that those conversations were productive but we didn\u2019t\u00a0nail all of them,\u201d Democratic strategist Joel Payne said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s OK to say\u00a0the intention was spot on but the execution was inconsistent,\u201d\u00a0Payne said, adding that voters will accept an honest dialogue on the previous ways.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr5_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Democratic strategist Basil Smikle, who served as the executive director of the New York State Democratic Party, said 2020, when some of the \u201cwoke\u201d language was adopted by Democrats, was an unusual time.<\/p>\n<p>Much of the nation was locked down in their homes by the coronavirus pandemic. From that isolated spot, Americans watched video of the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis. The officer, who knelt on Floyd\u2019s neck, was later convicted of murder.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The killing ignited the Black Lives Matter movement and resulted in massive protests. It also led to calls from some Democrats to defund the police,\u00a0a debate the party is still grappling with and that Republicans have used against them.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr6_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cIn many ways, a lot of the individuals and entities wanted to show their support for the movement,\u201d Smikle said. \u201cSome of it was knee-jerk and inarticulate. Some of it was well-meaning.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut all of this gets moderate over time because the movement comes down from its peak of intensity and people start to wrestle with everyday reality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The latest talk about woke comes amid a tense battle within the Democratic Party between the establishment and a far-left that had been building momentum before Hong\u2019s defeat. Democratic socialists who have won a string of victories around the country want to change the Democratic Party\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr7_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Democratic socialist positions \u2014 and language used by candidates \u2014 has created another rift among moderates and the left about what their messaging should be in the final stretch of the midterms and beyond.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Moderates argue that to win contests across the country, candidates have to run on a more unifying message and use rhetoric that appeals beyond the base.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor Democrats to compete in the middle-ground districts they need to win, they have to be focused on local economic insecurities and how the chaos of the Trump administration is impacting people\u2019s security and wallets,\u201d said former Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), who served as the former chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr8_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201c\u2018Defund the police\u2019 is the wrong message in the wrong districts,\u201d Israel said. \u201cThe one thing that might unite the far left with moderate Democrats\u00a0is the need to win the midterms and place a check on Donald Trump. That means messaging on the basis of sound strategy tailored to specific districts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the interview on \u201cThis Week,\u201d Ocasio-Cortez said the conversations around the 2020 election \u2014 when the nation was at the height of the lockdown and seeing high unemployment because of the shutdowns \u2014 \u201cwere quite fruitful.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that, you know, during lockdown of course, rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr9_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Payne agreed, saying that the nation has a different focus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re at a moment right now where there\u2019s more focus on economic populism,\u201d he said, pointing to Mamdani\u2019s campaign for mayor of New York in which he centered his campaign around overall affordability and housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Still, Smikle and others say while Ocasio-Cortez may be trying to turn the page on some of the themes that have stuck to Democrats in recent cycles \u2014 particularly if she runs for higher office for a Senate seat or a White House bid \u2014 her opponents may not be as willing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr10_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cShe may laugh it off but it\u2019s not going to change the label,\u201d he said. \u201cAnyone who is going to attack her is going to use the label.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) was asked Sunday about some of the more inflammatory\u00a0comments and positions from the left flank of the Democratic Party, the congresswoman quoted a New York City Council member to\u00a0make her point.\u00a0 \u201cWoke 1 was crazy,\u201d Ocasio-Cortez said, echoing what the council member, Chi Oss\u00e9, has said, before laughing along with&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/ocasiocortezalexandria_072326gn03_w.jpg?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}