SerpApi.Org
New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reportedly left the stage early during a rally Sunday evening to avoid being seen with a controversial Michigan congressional candidate.
Ocasio-Cortez traveled to Michigan this weekend for what Politico described as "a three-city swing" on behalf of Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and controversial Michigan congressional candidate William Lawrence.
But after taking the stage in Lansing on Sunday to promote the two men, she avoided even uttering Lawrence's name, according to David Sivak of the DC Examiner.
Then after the rally, she took off early and skipped what Politico described as a "hand-hoisting curtain-call photo-op" with Sen. Bernie Sanders, El-Sayed, and Lawrence.
The lawmaker's critics and observers strongly suspect her snubbing of Lawrence was intentional. Lawrence, a progressive, has faced heavy backlash for having dared years earlier to criticize black U.S. political leaders, the majority of whom are Democrats.
According to HuffPost, he made the controversial remarks during a 2024 recording of his podcast, Hegemonicon.
"The extent to which the older generation of black political leadership are such a pillar, frankly, for establishment, capitalist, imperialist American power through their role as this kind of traditionalist, establishment-ist pillar of the Democratic Party, it’s a big problem," he said at the time.
"It’s a big problem for left politics in this country. And it gets us every single time. It really defangs the white left and puts us in impossible positions, really," he added.
The remarks recently went mega-viral, prompting outrage from black leftists. Lawrence subsequently published a post to the social media app X on July 11 expressing regret for his previous remarks:
Ocasio-Cortez's observers and critics suspect she purposefully distanced herself from Lawrence so as to not lose support from the black community going into 2028, a presidential election year.
All this comes at a time when many on the left, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, are either directly calling for the lawmaker to run for president or expressing support for her potential candidacy.
Longtime Democratic Party strategist James Carville is a rare exception, according to the New York Post.
"I think AOC is remarkably talented, let me be very clear about that," Carville said Thursday on the "Greta Wire" podcast. "Her staff work is pristine. But she’s not gonna run for president because she’s not gonna have any chance."
The belief among her critics is that she's especially "not gonna have any chance" if she gets off on the wrong foot with black voters.
