GOP pollster B.J. Martino told Hill.TV on Friday that freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is a new political foil for Republicans heading into 2020.
“Both parties need to have a foil. They need to identify who is going to be the villain in the story for the next election. And for Republicans, it’s been [Speaker] Nancy Pelosi [D-Calif.] for well over a decade,” Martino, a partner at the Tarrance Group, said.
“That storyline sort of played itself out now, and so you can begin to see, you know, why Fox News is beginning to focus some presidential candidates, beginning to focus on AOC more because we need to identify who is going to be that lightning rod going forward,” he said, referring to Ocasio-Cortez by her initials.
“She, in many ways, is the new leadership, the shadow government of the Democratic
Party in Congress,” he said. “She drives the agenda in some ways. She’s a disrupter within the Democratic Party and our larger political system, and that’s a lot of what that appeal is among Democrats, that being able to push back against the establishment.”
Ocasio-Cortez is seen as a progressive firebrand on Capitol Hill, advocating for proposals like the Green New Deal, which has become a target of conservatives.
The freshman lawmaker has repeatedly hit back against conservative attacks on her.
“I mean, it’s weird, why are so many grown men obsessed with this 29-year-old?” she said on “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”
— Julia Manchester
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