Tipsheet

Uh Oh: New Poll Shows AOC Favorability Underwater By Double Digits...Among New Yorkers

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  March 19, 2019 10:25 AM

House Freshman Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez did not -- shall we say -- take kindly to a recent national poll showing her favorability rating tumbling downward.  The more people have gotten to know her, Gallup found, the less they've liked what they've seen.  She's now underwater by ten points.  But that was a survey of the entire country, including many stubbornly white and conservative ingrates, who've ignorantly failed to appreciate her trailblazing, hard-charging, country-savin' socialist crusade.  Surely the more enlightened, and far more liberal, denizens of her home state think happier thoughts about her, right?  Not according to a just-released Siena College poll:


As you can see, she's at (-13) overall among New Yorkers, pulling in a rough (-29) among unaffiliated voters.  She gets crushed in the 'burbs and upstate, and is only right-side-up by mid-single digits in New York City.  She's also underwater among every age bracket.  It seems as though some of the hostility stems from AOC's outsized role in chasing Amazon out of New York, a very unpopular outcome:

By a 67-21 percent margin, New Yorkers say that Amazon cancelling its planned second headquarters in Queens was bad for New York. By as nearly as large a margin, 61-30 percent, they support the deal in which Amazon would receive up to $3 billion in state and city incentives and create up to 25,000 jobs if Amazon reconsiders, according to a new Siena College poll of New York State registered voters released today...“At least 63 percent of Democrats, Republicans and independents, upstaters and downstaters, men and women, young and old, black and white New Yorkers agree: Amazon pulling out of Queens was bad for New York"...While some may have celebrated Amazon’s announcement to pull the plug, the vast majority of New Yorkers of every stripe thought it was bad for the Empire State. Who do New Yorkers blame? Well, there’s certainly blame enough to go around. More people think that Amazon, Governor Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio, the State Senate, and local Queens activists were villains in this saga than they were heroes. However, voters say the biggest villain was Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Only 12 percent call her hero, while 38 percent label her a villain...

While I have sympathy for AOC's opposition to the heavy corporate welfare aspect of New York's Amazon deal, her outright celebration of the loss of thousands of well-paying jobs was astonishing, and her butchering of the tax facts belied a deep ignorance that has obviously failed to impress many voters.  Previous polling showed that people in AOC's district wanted to Amazon project to move forward, especially people of color from the outer boroughs.  Incidentally, the Siena survey also shows overwhelming opposition (34/61) among New Yorkers to giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, including disapproval from more than seven-in-ten independents.  But New York Democrats insist it's happening: "It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when," one lawmaker said.  One small shard of good news for AOC in this poll is that she at least remains less unpopular than New York City's left-wing Mayor, Bill De Blasio:


Parting thought: Is De Blasio running for president?


May I remind you that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently described single-payer healthcare in the state as an 'insane' policy proposal that would "double everybody's taxes."

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