Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Prime-Time Speech Reflects Long March To Mainstream

By handing her a prime-time speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday night, the Democratic Party has fully embraced New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a still-occasional insurgent against the party’s leadership who opened her career with the shocking ouster of an incumbent.

It was not even Ocasio-Cortez’s idea to speak at the convention, according to a senior aide. The convention organizers contacted her about the opportunity and gave her a prime-time spot better than the slot given to New York’s governor. And she used it to deliver a stemwinder, generating some of the loudest cheers of the convention’s first night and leaving the crowd chanting “A-O-C” as she walked off the stage.

“In Kamala Harris, we have a chance to elect a president who is for the middle class because she is from the middle class,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

The embrace does not mean Ocasio-Cortez’s disagreements with senior Democrats have wholly disappeared. And it definitely does not mean the Democratic Party establishment fully embraces Ocasio-Cortez’s progressive agenda.

But it does mean the two sides have decided that working together can benefit them both. The Democratic Party can use Ocasio-Cortez’s best-in-class communications skills and massive social media footprint to talk to finicky and hard-to-reach young voters, and Ocasio-Cortez can have more influence over the party’s agenda when she has a strong working relationship with its leaders.

Ocasio-Cortez’s speech made a left-leaning, populist case for Harris, focusing on how she will stand up to large corporations and tearing into Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

“We know Trump would sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his own