Former Dem leader: Focus on Ocasio-Cortez powered by media, Republicans

Former House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt (Mo.) said Tuesday that the media and the Republican Party have combined to put outsized attention on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), arguing that other freshman lawmakers are equally worthy of notice.

“I am thinking that probably the attention she is getting is a convenient partnership between the media, who kind of likes celebrities, and the Republicans, who want a target,” Gephardt told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“(Democrats) had a lot of people elected the last election who were from moderate districts. In fact a lot of them were women, and many of them were former military,” he added.

Gephardt, who served as House majority leader from 1989 to 1995 and as House minority leader from 1995 to 2003, said he’s “disappointed in the media in not giving the other people the attention they deserve.”

“They have an equal vote to hers, and to everybody else, and they have got different views. But they never get any ink,” he said.

Ocasio-Cortez stunned the political world last year when she defeated 10-term incumbent Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) in a primary. She became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress in November.

She has since remained a fixture in the media and on Capitol Hill thanks to her prominent social media presence and support of progressive ideas like the “Green New Deal” and a significantly higher tax rate on the wealthiest Americans.

Last year’s midterm elections saw a historic number of women elected to Congress, including the first Native American women and the first two Muslim women.