Former populist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) bent the knee to the Democrat establishment by surrendering her first dues payment to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).
House campaign committees require election cycle dues from lawmakers. The amounts vary depending on party status.
Lawmakers accumulate power by raising and dispersing funds to committees and colleagues. The parties award members for the donations with better committee assignments and favorable legislation treatment.
Members who do not pay are less likely to have party leadership push their legislative initiatives onto the floor or through committee.
Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) became a member of Congress in 2019 but failed to pay dues until 2024, representing the completion of a gradual shift towards becoming a member of the Democrat establishment.
AOC, who was a far-left populist, is now one of the most prominent Democrats in the House and has used that power to defend Hunter and President Joe Biden, a career Democrat establishment politician.
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House Oversight Committee
Due to her fundraising abilities as a former populist, mirroring the star power of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on the populist right, AOC holds significant influence among Democrats with the ability to donate to candidates in highly contested House races.
Since 2019, AOC’s campaign committees raised more than $37 million, the New York Times reported. She raised another $11.1 million for political causes of personal concern, her office claims. But she has not given a dime of the money to the DCCC until now.
Ocasio-Cortez likely spies a new realm of power to conquer by donating to the DCCC, which she claims to have reshaped. “We spent a lot of time, since first coming into office in 2019, working to change this institution,” she told the Times. “And we have successfully done so.”
“We’ve exerted a lot of our power through our existing channels,” she continued. “Now it’s time to assert our influence in larger institutions, including the D.C.C.C.”
AOC earmarked her first donation, totaling $260,000, for the DCCC’s Voter Protection Program, which works on “voter registration, poll observation and litigation.”
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.