Ocasio-Cortez says Biden vote can be ‘tactical’ effort to support marginalized communities

Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Friday cautioned voters who may be wary of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden against holding back their support because they fear he is insufficiently liberal, arguing it’s alright to make “tactical votes.”

The first-term lawmaker said Biden would be a better choice to protect communities that have faced hardship under the Trump administration.

“I am casting this vote out of solidarity with our most marginalized and vulnerable communities,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with Jane Fonda.

“I don’t think anyone can really look at me in the eye and genuinely tell me that immigrants who are having forced hysterectomies, who are being put in cages and camps, who are being separated from their children in some of the largest human rights violations at [a] scale that we have seen in a very long time — I don’t think anyone can look me in the eye and say that they won’t be better off in a Biden administration, that they won’t be more protected under a Biden administration. … This isn’t always about support for the candidate. We can make tactical votes,” she said.

Ocasio-Cortez said she dislikes the “saviorism” that sometimes takes place around a candidate once they’ve secured the party’s nomination.

“It’s OK to say Joe Biden is not perfect, and it’s OK to say that and to support him. Not because you agree with him on everything or even because you think his policies are good,” she said, but because of “the stakes of this election.”