Prior to socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) chances of becoming the Democratic Party nominee being all-but-torpedoed, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) had reportedly denied multiple requests to campaign for her beloved mentor. According to HuffPost, sources say that Ocasio-Cortez actually resisted campaigning for Sanders up until the New Hampshire primary.
“It was like pulling teeth to get her to New Hampshire,” one source told the outlet.
Beyond New Hampshire, Ocasio-Cortez denied multiple requests from the Sanders campaign all the way through Super Tuesday. She did not campaign for him again until March 8, just two days before the all-important-primary in Michigan.
“Ocasio-Cortez declined multiple invitations from Sanders’ campaign to speak on his behalf in Nevada, South Carolina and the 14 states that voted on Super Tuesday, the three people told HuffPost,” the outlet reported. “During that period, Sanders rose and fell quickly, going from the uncontested front-runner after Nevada’s Feb. 22 contest to a heavy underdog after a blowout in South Carolina on Feb. 29 and Super Tuesday routs on March 3.”
“As an embattled Sanders prepared to mount an unsuccessful stand against former Vice President Joe Biden in Michigan on Tuesday, the campaign again turned to Ocasio-Cortez for help,” the report continued. “She agreed at the last minute to deliver a speech on Sunday at a get-out-the-vote rally on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor. Sanders’ campaign issued a revised media advisory about the rally the night before, informing the press that Ocasio-Cortez would be present.”
Though neither the Sanders campaign nor the office of Ocasio-Cortez has denied the story, Faiz Shakir, campaign manager for Bernie Sanders, praised Ocasio-Cortez for her mid-October endorsement.
“Senator Sanders and our campaign will never forget that in one of the most difficult moments for us, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez gave us a boost with her strong endorsement,” Shakir said. “And she has remained a steady and consistent ally, supporter, surrogate and adviser to the senator ever since.”
Reportedly, Occasio-Cortez and the Bernie Sanders campaign had escalated tensions over the fact that the socialist senator from Vermont publicly accepted the endorsement from podcast host Joe Rogan.
Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for Ocasio-Cortez, denied any tensions with the campaign. “The plan was always that she would slow down her surrogate work in February, after Iowa, to focus on her re-elect and congressional duties,” Hitt said.
“I’ve said throughout this entire process that what is so important is that we ultimately unite behind who that Democratic nominee is,” Ocasio-Cortez said to late-night comedian Seth Meyers last week.
The congresswoman added that she believes this to be a “two-way street” and denounced both sides who said they would not support the other if they were the nominee.
“And I think it’s a two-way street,” she said. “I’ve been concerned by some folks that say if Bernie’s the nominee, they won’t support him, and the other way around. This is more important than all of us. We really need to make sure that we defeat Donald Trump at the polls, assuming, and knowing, how insane it’s going to get between now and then.”