{"id":197831,"date":"2026-05-20T13:32:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/197831\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T13:32:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:32:02","slug":"aocs-endorsement-power-gets-put-to-the-test-in-pennsylvania-following-her-mixed-performance-elsewhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/197831\/","title":{"rendered":"AOC’s endorsement power gets put to the test in Pennsylvania following her mixed performance elsewhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Bronx and Queens Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s<\/a> clout within the Democratic Party<\/a> will once again be put to the test Tuesday evening as voters weigh in on a key Pennsylvania race in which the lefty firebrand made an endorsement.<\/p>\n

Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) threw her weight behind state Rep. Chris Rabb (D), a self-styled Democratic Socialist, in the race for Pennsylvania\u2019s 3rd Congressional District, one of the bluest districts in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question here is not whether this community will elect a Democrat. The question is, \u2018What kind of Democrat will this community elect, Philadelphia?\u2019\u201d the \u201cSquad\u201d rep declared while stumping for Rabb late last week.<\/p>\n

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stumped for Chris Rabb over recent days. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if you want to change the Democratic party, we\u2019ve got to change the kind of Democrats that get elected and elect Democrats like Rep. Rabb if you want our nation to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rabb is one of four candidates vying for the seat held by retiring Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Pa.).<\/p>\n

During his campaign, Rabb frequently railed against Israel as well as AIPAC and staunchly backed the Palestinian cause.<\/p>\n

Following the Bondi Beach attack in Australia last December, where 16 were killed, and some 40 were injured during a Hanukkah celebration, he bizarrely shared a post on Instagram claiming \u201cWe all know the [attackers] were likely Zionists themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

That post was later taken down and denounced by Rabb, who claimed a former staffer put it up.<\/p>\n

Chris Rabb has a smattering of lefty groups backing his congressional bid. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

He also sat down with notorious lefty streamer Hasan Piker.<\/p>\n

Piker said in a 2019 stream that \u201cAmerica deserved 9\/11\u2033 and later said that the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack was a \u201cdirect consequence\u201d of Israeli actions, contending that if the terror group engaged in rape, it \u201cdoesn\u2019t change the dynamic for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lefty streamer also disturbingly fawned over the \u201cbrave mujahideen\u201d for injuring Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and defended the US-designated terrorist group\u00a0Hezbollah<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rabb enjoys the backing of a plethora of liberal groups such as Justice Democrats, the Sunrise Movement, Democratic Socialists of America, and more.<\/p>\n

Other \u201cSquad\u201d reps or aligned ones, such as Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Summer Lee (D-Pa.), have backed Rabb as well. <\/p>\n

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has had a mixed performance when it comes to endorsements in Democratic primaries. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Rabb has supported many key lefty positions, such as eliminating Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), backing the Green New Deal, cutting aid to Israel, and Medicare for All.<\/p>\n

Sparse polling<\/a> of the field has generally pegged Rabb as trailing the other Democratic candidates in the race, including Ala Stanford and Sharif Street.<\/p>\n

Thus far, the \u201cSquad\u201d rep has had a mixed performance when it comes to her meddling in Democratic primaries in the 2026 cycle. <\/p>\n

Her backing of Analilia Mejia<\/a> in the special election for New Jersey\u2019s congressional seat that had been held by Gov. Mikie Sherrill proved to be successful. Mejia bested former Rep. Tom Malinowski.<\/p>\n

But in Illinois, the socialist darling was dealt a blow when Junaid Ahmed, whom she endorsed, was taken down by comparatively moderate former Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) in Illinois\u2019 8th Congressional District back in March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Bronx and Queens Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s clout within the Democratic Party will once again be put…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[87156,2258,87627,69352,28,30,29,50,302],"class_list":["post-197831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-alexandria-ocasio-cortez","tag-democrats","tag-endorsements","tag-midterm-elections-2026","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-politics","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}