representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is emerging as a key surrogate for President Biden’s re-election campaign among young people and progressives, making his climate agenda a victory for these critical voting blocs.
Ocasio-Cortez’s surrogacy has parameters. She has said she supports Biden’s re-election bid and would support him during a climate event, but she also pressured him as an outspoken critic of the Biden administration’s handling of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Support from AOC — as Ocasio-Cortez is widely known — gives Biden star power and credibility from the left as he faces an uphill battle to bring in young voters, as well as voters on the left generally, at the polls.
“AOC has immense and sustained visibility among young voters and progressives of all ages,” said the former Representative Steve Israel (D.N.Y.), who chaired the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “It can play a very important role in helping them come together to stop Donald Trump. She can remind them of Biden’s success in funding climate initiatives, reducing student debt, and much more.
While Ocasio-Cortez stood with Biden in support of his climate agenda, students in her hometown of New York were protesting Biden’s pro-Israel policies.
Ocasio-Cortez argued that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and called on the Biden administration to end its military aid to Israel.
Biden campaign spokesperson Seth Schuster told The Hill that they are “proud to have earned the support of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and we look forward to working with her and the entire our Democratic coalition to defeat Donald Trump in November.”
The congresswoman endorsed Biden but did not make any televised appearances on behalf of the Biden campaign, something official surrogates and members of the campaign’s National Advisory Council frequently do.
Her emerging surrogacy comes after just 9 percent of young voters in a Harvard Kennedy School Poll said they believed the United States was moving in the right direction and that a NPR/NewsHour/Marist Poll found former President Trump up 2 points over him among Millennial and Gen Z Americans.
“I think it remains to be seen whether progress on issues like climate and student debt outweighs the level of frustration with the administration’s Middle East policies,” said Joseph Geevarghese, director executive of Our Revolution.
“At the end of the day, young people are not naive. They’re not going to blindly say, ‘Well, AOC or Bernie are for Biden, so I’ll be for Biden,'” he continued, referring to Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Biden, during his climate remarks Monday in Virginia, said he would discuss foreign policy with Ocasio-Cortez that day while they were together.
“Rep. Ocasio-Cortez from New York, you know, I learned a long time ago: Listen to this lady. Listen to this lady,” Biden said. “We’re also going to talk more about another part of the world, very quickly.”
After the remarks, he and…
