Republicans Probably Didn't Enjoy It, But AOC Kicked Ass In Chicago Monday Night

Her Speech Won't Be Forgotten

The convention exploded in extended cheering Monday evening when AOC was introduced as a prime time speaker. She was certainly one of the night’s most appreciated speakers, despite— or at least partly because— bringing up Gaza. Younger people especially were way more excited to hear her than tired war-horses like Jim Clyburn, Chris Coons, people’s spouses or even Hillary Clinton.

Writing for City&State afterwards, Ahna Fleming and Rebecca Lewis compared how enthusiastically she was welcomed compared to another New York politician, damaged goods conservative Kathy Hochul. “Both sought to energize the crowd to set the tone for the week, but the leading New York women garnered some starkly different reactions. Hochul’s speech got off to a little bit of a rough start when she fumbled her first line. Eventually got into the swing of things, noting that “Trump was born a New Yorker but ended up a fraud, a philanderer and a felon. He wasn't raised with the New York values that I know… Trust me America, if you think you’re tired of Donald Trump, talk to a New Yorker… Trump talked big about bringing back manufacturing jobs, but you know who actually did it? President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.” 

When Ocasio-Cortez took to the stage, she immediately riled up the crowd, which erupted into chants of “A-O-C!” She echoed Hochul’s sentiments, similarly sharing her personal experience as a working-class New Yorker. But she broke with other speakers on the main stage with a direct reference to the war in Gaza. “(Kamala) is working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and bring hostages home,” Ocasio-Cortez said, to loud applause. President Joe Biden later spoke about Gaza in the final speech of the night, as did Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia later ad-libbed a reference to Palestinians during his own address, and President Joe Biden spoke about his efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza in the final speech of the night. Although Ocasio-Cortez’s mention of Gaza was brief, it was the first mention of the conflict by a speaker on the main stage at the DNC.

…Besides the brief mention of a ceasefire, Ocasio-Cortez otherwise used her speech to paint Harris as a champion for working-class Americans. “In Kamala Harris, we have a chance to elect a president who is for the middle class, because she is from the middle class,” she said. “She understands the urgency of rent checks and groceries and prescriptions.” Ocasio-Cortez also joined Hochul’s efforts to criticize Trump’s lack of connection to the working and middle classes, saying he would “sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his own pockets and greasing the palms of his Wall Street friends.”

Ocasio-Cortez said she would be “happy to, any day of the week,” go back to bartending— responding to rebukes she said she’s received from Republicans ever since she was elected— because “there is nothing wrong with working for a living.” 

Hochul’s speech received immediate negative scores from political observers involved in Democratic and leftwing circles. One labor source described the experience of watching the speech as “tough” and awkward. “Usually the home state people know how to take down take down best, like Bloomberg did,” the source said in a text, referencing the well-received anti-Trump speech from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the 2016 DNC. “This. Well. Not so much.”

A Democratic delegate who witnessed the speech live called Hochul’s speech “totally unremarkable.” And one upstate Democratic consultant said the speech from Hochul “is the moment for the Democratic machine in (New York) to realize they don’t inspire anyone.” Many reactions on social media were also negative.

…Reactions to Ocasio-Cortez were almost universally positive, with some observers even comparing her speech to Barack Obama’s famous speech at the 2004 DNC. Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas, who is not at the convention, used a fire emoji to describe the speech on Twitter and applauded her decision to speak about Gaza. “My Congresswoman appears to be the first speaker to raise calls for a ceasefire in Gaza on the main stage at the DNC, to wild applause,” Gonzalez-Rojas wrote. “Thank you, Congresswoman.” 

The same delegate who criticized Hochul’s speech said the energy for Ocasio-Cortez was “off the walls,” noting that people from across the country— not just the New York delegation— was chanting her name in the convention hall. And New York City Comptroller Brad Lander described the energy in the room as “electric.”

Reporting on the convention for the Washington Post, Aaron Blake noted that “If there’s to be a lasting moment from a politician in Monday’s program— beyond Biden’s de facto farewell after a lifetime in politics— it’s likely to be Ocasio-Cortez’s rousing speech. Ocasio-Cortez cast Trump as no ally of working people, saying he would ‘sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his own pockets and greasing the palms of his Wall Street friends.’ She targeted Republicans who like to attack her for being a former bartender. She said she would be happy to go back to that occupation ‘any day of the week, because there is nothing wrong with working for a living.’ The crowd absolutely ate it up. It seemed to be the moment that Ocasio-Cortez completed her journey from left-wing ‘Squad’ provocateur— and a thorn in the side to her party’s leaders in the past— to being a bona fide Democratic establishment star. It wouldn’t be surprising to see clips of the speech for years to come.”