Dissension is roiling the Democratic Party as it tries to contain an emboldened second-term President Donald Trump, whose remade MAGA-centric Republican Party owns majorities in both houses of Congress.
Calls for new — and more youthful — Democratic leadership abound, seeded by the octogenarian Joe Biden‘s ignominious end and by septuagenarian Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer‘s failure to offer resistance against the recent Trump-backed budget resolution — this dissatisfaction despite Schumer’s extremely limited options.
This has left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) looking to fill two voids at once in the current climate.
First, AOC has pledged to visit and hear out citizens districts where House Republicans have been instructed by Speaker Mike Johnson to avoid engaging with their own constituents.
Second, AOC is trying to fill the void in Democratic leadership — a void currently symbolized by Schumer and his legislative paralysis.
AOC: One thing I love about Arizonans is that you all have shown that if a US Senator isn’t fighting hard enough for you, you’re not afraid to replace her with one who will. pic.twitter.com/TqhWmkfcFy
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 21, 2025
Surprisingly, perhaps, the conservative political market makers at Fox, led by Fox News star Sean Hannity, are in favor of AOC replacing the more centrist Schumer at the top of the Democratic pecking order. Why?
Because to Fox News watchers, AOC is the premier representative of the so-called “radical left” — and Hannity believes her ascension tips the electoral balance in the middle further toward the MAGA side.
Considering rumors that AOC will “primary” Schumer and win his Senate seat, Hannity says it’s an idea “I’m highly supportive of — after all she is the true leader of the radical Democratic party.”
(Note: Whatever the ideological challenges to Schumer’s standing, an AOC primary challenge is an idea mostly cooked up by right-wing media — with Schumer’s term not due to end until 2029.)
On his show, Hannity asked Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to chime in on AOC’s increasingly prominent role.
Jordan used Trump’s preferred framing of late to answer, calling the Republican positions merely “common sense” and pitting them against the alleged “crazy” ideas of the Democrats, who he maligns as not wanting to “have a border” and for supporting judicial review of executive branch actions, as opposed to delivering unchecked authoritarian powers to the president.
Out on the road in front of big crowds in swing states, AOC took up the “common sense vs. crazy” framing and sought to take back the notion of common sense policy from MAGA with her own list of what looks like common sense.
Speaking in Arizona, AOC said “What they like to call as radical, I believe is common sense.”
AOC: Alina Habba said, “What intellectual thought.. you were in a bar AOC. Not to have a drink but to serve one.” I don’t care what this woman says about me but I want you to understand that she isn’t just talking about me, she’s talking about all of us. Trump hired her to speak… pic.twitter.com/vbqbRxzSql
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 20, 2025
The Congresswoman offered her view that “Fox News and the right-wing would have you believe that these American values are something out of The Communist Manifesto. But let me tell you Fox News, I don’t believe in healthcare, labor, and human rights because I’m a Marxist.. I believe it because I was a waitress.”