Exclusive poll: AOC defining Dems in swing states

[question everything]

Top Democrats are circulating a poll showing that one of the House's most progressive members — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — has become a definitional face for the party with a crucial group of swing voters.

Why it matters: These Democrats are sounding the alarm that swing voters know and dislike socialism, warning it could cost them the House and the presidency. The poll is making the rounds of some of the most influential Democrats in America.

"If all voters hear about is AOC, it could put the [House] majority at risk," said a top Democrat who is involved in 2020 congressional races. "[S]he's getting all the news and defining everyone else’s races."

The poll — taken in May, before Speaker Pelosi's latest run-in with AOC and the three other liberal House freshmen known as "The Squad" — included 1,003 likely general-election voters who are white and have two years or less of college education.

These are the "white, non-college voters" who embraced Donald Trump in 2016 but are needed by Democrats in swing House districts. The group that took the poll shared the results with Axios on the condition that it not be named, because the group has to work with all parts of the party.

More..

https://www.axios.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-poll-democrats-2020-aeaa3771-f142-4059-b79e-1fed569dfdf9.html

[tirebiter]

1. Is that why they give Biden a 10 point lead on Trump?

Stranger things have happened

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. AOC has replaced Pelosi as the boogeyman for the right.

[Bleacher Creature]

8. Exactly, and we saw how that worked out for Republicans in 2018. NT

[DemocratSinceBirth]

14. Just noise. If it wasn't her they would find another boogeyman.

[a kennedy]

48. and I know, FAWK them all.......

[politicaljunkie41910]

49. That is pure BS as Bernie Sanders has been a bigger voice for socialism than AOC could ever be.

And he already has a large and loyal following already in place and much more organized. It has always been apparent to me that Bernie would be the GOP's socialist target because Bernie has owned it; and because of his loyal following and ability to raise large sums of money from small donors. However, I don't believe anyone here is losing sleep on the theory that the GOP really believes that AOC is really the GOP's boogeyman. Though I do believe that the GOP will use Bernie's self-professed socialism to paint the Democratic Party with a broad stroke, I think they do so at their own peril since their president's besties are a murderous Communist dictator (Putin);
Xi Jinping leader of the Chinese Communist Party who just used troops to put down an insurrection in Hong Kong; North Korea's murderous dictator (L'll Kim); and Saudi Arabia's murderous aristocrat Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud aka (MBS) aka Jared Kushner's Personal Banker.

[BeyondGeography]

2. Sounds like she has them all shook up

[melman]

3. This poll is trash

Link to tweet

[mr_lebowski]

9. This DU'er doesn't disagree with you ... I think she's bit of an egomaniac myself ...

And before anyone says it, I know ... it takes one to know one

[Applegate]

11. "She is the Louie Gohmert of the Democratic party."

Your post is insulting and uncalled for.

And probably violates DU rules about attacking Democrats.

[LanternWaste]

13. "Many DU'ers disagree with me"

That often happens when we're presented with an emotional premise lacking any objective data or hard evidence to support it.

[lunatica]

15. She represents a sizable number of Democrats in the country

Why should Democrats keep trying to appease racists for fear of fighting back? I hope she never shuts up or acts like the appeasers want her to.

Do you think if she shut up they would like us better?

[Bettie]

16. You know what the difference is?

Look how much it took for the Right wingers to disown Steve King.

Meanwhile, some people are demanding that AOC be silenced because she might make some fragile white swing voters feel ooky.

She represents me and I'm one of those old, liberal white ladies (OK, I'm not that old, only 52) who wants to see some real change!

I too hope she never shuts up or does as the appeasers want her to. History has taught us that appeasement never works. Never.

[BeyondGeography]

28. Well said

I think she’s phenomenal. Fearless and joyful. I can’t believe she’s from my hometown which has produced so many drab cynics and game players. She makes me optimistic and proud.

[stopdiggin]

17. "voters we need to vote for us in states we need to carry"

because this

[lunatica]

19. Well if they vote for that racist radical hatemonger

They obviously didn’t vote for a sane Democrat with a proven record of serving her country. Maybe a radical take-no-prisoners Democrat will win them over.

Your argument is empty.

[stopdiggin]

22. wait, I missed something ...

I think I might have responded to the wrong post. I missed the racist part. My bad. I DO think swing states are desperately important. And party people tell me we actually picked up more seats with moderates than we did with the progressives in 18. That is my concern.

[lunatica]

42. If the swing voters don't vote for Democrats in 2020

It’ll be because they stayed home. Because many of them won’t vote for him again. Those are the only voters we need to bother about. They may not vote for the Democratic nominee, but they also won’t vote for Trump. I’m fine with that. It’s better than prostituting ourselves for their votes.

And as the months go on they’ll be looking at the Democratic debates and the nomination. Ocasio-Cortez won’t be a concern as far as the elections go. She’s not running and the nominee will be promoting their potential policies.

[Nevermypresident]

6. An anonymous pollster??

Hmmmm.

[lunatica]

10. I know

Hmmm indeed.

They should be called the chicken little pollsters.

[question everything]

18. I know. But we do need to be aware of these..

[NewJeffCT]

7. AOC really triggers Republicans

For most of this year, if I made a snarky response to a Trump tweet, I'd get a lot of likes and some retweets, but almost nobody attacking me. Prior to this year, I would often get trolls and Trumpsters attacking me if i responded, but even last year, the defenders were often slow to respond. In 2017 and 2016, if I responded, I'd immediately get swamped with attacks.

However, this morning, I responded to an AOC tweet and told her to hang in there and keep fighting for America because our current government was, quoting Trump, a "complete and total catastrophe" and I got swamped with people attacking me in response. All the trolls defending Trump seemed to have moved over to attack people defending AOC.

[Applegate]

12. Not just Republicans. See replies in this thread.

[stopdiggin]

21. I'll both criticize and defend

This poll might be crap (I don't think it really matters), but what is indisputable is that AOC is all over the place all the time. My problem here is that she is often a distraction. Notice how the narrative shifted (on a dime) from concentration camps to Democratic infighting? And which is benefiting our side? Some of this is outside our control -- but some of it is just poor tactics! While I have given her credit for energy and ideas (she has strengths) I do NOT think she is, or should be, the focal point of the party. To that extent -- yes, she IS hurting us.

[trev]

20. I'm sorry, but I deeply doubt these voters "know socialism."

Let's do another poll of the same people, and include a question that requires them to define the theory.

Economic theory is not taught in most high schools. These people have never been exposed to it. They go by what they hear--and I would bet most of them are listening to Fox.

Yes, I'd love to see as many swing voters come over as possible. Naturally. But let's not get confused about where they really stand. There's a reason why they are swing voters. If they really think that voting for either Party is an equivalence game, then they are not paying attention.

So how many of these "white, non-college voters who embraced Donald Trump" can we really count on to turn from the GOP?

[Humanist_Activist]

24. I bet if you polled those same people asking if they should have a greater say...

in how their place of employment is run and/or afforded protections from employer abuse, and be specific about it, we would find out that they like some socialistic ideas.

[trev]

25. That's not Socialism,

a term these people no doubt equate with Communism. Rather, it's liberalism.

We're already actively promoting the policies you suggest--as we ought to be. But the Republicans counter that we are against Capitalism. And so they get scared off.

I'm not putting my eggs in the swing basket just yet.

[trev]

29. That being said, there *are* some socialistic

corporations. WinCo, for example. Saturn.

Of course, Saturn went out of business....

[Humanist_Activist]

50. Some of those policies, yes, and I probably should have used "Left-Leaning"...

see I am anti-capitalistic, don't know how anyone can be for a system that is literally designed to accumulate capital into so few hands.

There's a debate among actual leftists as to whether to support Social Democratic policies that ultimately put capitalism on life support, or whether to pull support for things like Universal Health Care, minimum wage laws, Unions, etc. in the hopes that it accelerates the "Revolution". I'm skeptical of that myself, and doubt it would be a good outcome, such violent revolutions seem overtly messy to me and only acceptable if all other alternatives are exhausted.

Of course, the Republicans seem to be chomping at the bit for a revolution or civil war, not sure which, with this huge push in GOP controlled states at voter suppression. They are robbing people of legal avenues for voicing discontent and robbing them of representation. The American people are extremely lazy and apathetic, but there has to be a breaking point eventually, I don't know if I want to see it.

[trev]

52. "robbing them of representation"

Gee, isn't that kind of how our country got started...?

[Tarc]

23. Inter that you're unable to provide a source for the opinion poll, or any details on its methodology

Quite interesting.

[qazplm135]

26. there's ALWAYS going to be a bogeyman for the right

if it wasn't AOC, it would be Pelosi or some other person.

WHOMEVER we nominate will instantly become "the most liberal candidate for President ever."

Hell, they tried to turn Hillary Clinton into Castro.

Stop worrying about it, and focus on doing what we need to do.

[zaj]

30. What we need to do is win more votes in...

... swing states, not deep blue districts.

[qazplm135]

32. we need to win more votes

EVERYWHERE.

Guess what, swing states have "deep blue districts" that have remaining vote we need to drive out.

You notice the other side? They spend all of their energy driving out the deep red vote. They do NOT worry about swing districts like we do.

We outnumber them. The difference is, they vote more regularly. Every time we change that, we win. Every time we don't, we lose.

[zaj]

38. That's because they are a homogenous party

We succeed be by stitching together a diverse group.

[qazplm135]

43. We succeed

By driving out our base.

[zaj]

44. We don't have *one* base

We have a diverse party that is a balancing act to manage.

Trump is the single most unifying thing the Dems have ever had. But anti Trump isn't a party ideology.

[qazplm135]

45. Sure it is

Have you just arrived to politics?

[zaj]

27. Why is this so hard for anyone to believe?

It's the catch 22 of being the diverse party, not rocket science.

[DeminPennswoods]

31. They polled the GOP base

What kind of outcome did the pollster expect? This sounds like a poll to bolster one or more Dem candidates who are running on the idea that only they can appeal to these uneducated, white voters.

I suspect that if these voters actually met with AOC and listened to her, they'd like what she has to say a whole lot. There's a reason Andy Barr un-invited her to speak in his KY district.

[still_one]

35. I am no fan of Rep Ocasio-Cortez, but this so-called poll of supposedly influential Democrats smells

like a republican dirty trick

In fact, base on what has been happening, there is no doubt that the republicans are using the Nixon playbook, and his Southern Strategy bullshit

[DeminPennswoods]

37. No, they polled 1000+ Republican voters

Last edited Tue Jul 16, 2019, 09:10 PM - Edit history (1)

This poll fits the narrative that some Dems believe that these white, working class voters can be won over. I'd say this fits the campaign strategy of Biden, Klobuchar, Ryan and a few others. Listen to Biden's interview with Mika today to get an idea of how the strategy is to tut-tut AOC et al as not "representative" of the majority of Dems.

[still_one]

40. Republican voters aren't the path to victory. Independents would help, but not republicans

[DeminPennswoods]

46. Exactly

nt

[still_one]

47. Then we are on the same page on that

[elleng]

33. The poll -- taken in May . . .

[still_one]

34. This is divisionary bullshit, and I wouldn't be surprised if these so-called "democrats", were

actually republicans.

How lame is this:

"we don't want to be named, but we are "influential Democrats"

GIVE ME A F**KING BREAK

[Takket]

36. "People who never vote for Dems don't like AOC"

Thanks for that Axios.

[Caliman73]

39. Sista Soulja, Nancy Pelosi, and now AOC.

We love to get all upset about how they are going to use some typically a woman but better if it is a non-White woman as "the face of the Democratic (Democrat) Party.

Sorry but we don't need White non-college voters. We need to attract the 46% of people who can vote, who didn't bother to show up AT ALL to come and vote.

I think that AOC made a dumb "freshman" move by picking a fight with Pelosi. I think that she should never have said that Pelosi targets "women of color". I also think that Pelosi was dumb for minimizing AOC and her colleagues. Both sides should squash the dumb stuff and focus on taking on the Republicans. After we secure the Senate and Presidency, then we can have our little squabbles.

That said, A poll of less educated White Guys that says they won't vote for a woman of color with progressive policies? Alert the Press!

[beachbum bob]

41. AOC and leftist message falls flat, it doesn't win any where

Out side the coast areas of California and East Coast. We are not a left-center country. Never have been and why GOP wins

[customerserviceguy]

51. Whether this is true or not

this is what Trump's aim was in attacking the squad. He wants to drown out Elizabeth Warren's plans, Pete Buttigieg's messages about racial reconciliation, Joe Biden's mentions of the Obama Administration, etc.

And he's doing it.