Ocasio-Cortez slams NY Democratic Party leadership over election results

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) slammed New York state party leadership on Wednesday after election returns showed the Empire State trending to the right, calling on the president of the group to resign.

“NYS Dem party leadership, which was gutted under [former New York Gov. Andrew] Cuomo [D], stuffed with lobbyists, works to boost GOP, and failed to pass a basic state ballot measure to protect NY redistricting, must be accountable,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter.

“I called for Jay Jacob’s resignation a year ago and I still hold that position,” she added, referring to the New York State Democratic Party president.

Ocasio-Cortez was responding to a graphic from The New York Times that compared the votes cast in the Empire State’s gubernatorial race this year to the 2020 presidential election. According to the Times, the vote in New York this year shifted more Republican.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), however, still fended off a challenge from Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), securing her first full term as chief of the Empire State after assuming the role following Cuomo’s resignation over sexual harassment allegations.

In a subsequent tweet, Ocasio-Cortez posted the link to an article from October 2021 that detailed Jacobs being under fire for making an analogy involving former KKK leader David Duke.

That month, Jacobs argued that the party does not have to endorse a candidate because they win the primary, offering a “scenario” where Duke won a Democratic primary in New York.

“After leading the party to a catastrophic ballot measure loss that would’ve saved Dem House seats, the party chair (Jacobs) compared a Black woman Dem nominee to the KKK. He was protected,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “Last night’s underperformance is a consequence of that decision.”

And in a third message, the liberal lawmaker said, “Last night’s NY underperformance is a testament to years of prioritizing calcified machine politics and favoring over performance, strategy, & organizing.”

She said the state party president “must go,” adding, “And we must recenter the party to better value community leadership and small-d democracy.”

The Hill has reached out to Jacobs for comment.