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AOC Finally Weighed in on Jamaal Bowman's Loss. There's Just a Major Problem, and It Gets Worse

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  June 26, 2024 3:45 PM

This article has been updated to mention that there is now a Community Notes attached to AOC's post about Bowman. 

On Tuesday night, soon to be Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) lost his primary, which was a blow to many of his fellow Squad members as well. Among those closest to Bowman has been Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who handily won her own race. A little after noon on Wednesday, AOC posted an image of herself and her colleague. Although she went to tag the congressman, she ended up tagging the wrong account.

The @JamaalBowman account in question that was tagged hasn't posted since August 18, 2012. The account has no profile picture, is only following 22 accounts, and has 64 followers. The user's bio contains several hashtags in addition to reading "Just Ordinary Girl. :)" and "STORM Cherleader." The account also says it's based in Germany.

Just over three hours later, the post has thousands of replies and hundreds of quoted reposts with users mocking AOC and Bowman, in addition to pointing out her embarrassing error. 

AOC likely meant to tag the @JamaalBowmanNY account, which is his political account. 

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Not only is the post in question still up, but Community Notes has added several forms of further context, not merely about the incorrect X account, but to note that other black men have represented the 16th Congressional District before. This includes Adam Clayton Powell Jr., who represented the district from 1953–1963, and Charles Rangel, who represented it from 1983–1993.

Until this afternoon post, AOC spent Tuesday mostly focused on her own primary race, celebrating that win with a post to her X account on Tuesday night. This comes after she joined Bowman for a rally last weekend in a part of the Bronx that wasn't even in the congressman's district where they engaged in quite bizarre behavior that AOC has since doubled down on. 

Other Squad members who posted their support for Bowman, did so much earlier and tagged the correct account, including Reps. Dalia Ramirez (D-IL), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Greg Casar (D-TX). 

Although Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) only just recently put out a statement about Bowman's loss, she at least tagged the right account. While Bowman has become the first Squad member to lose his seat, Bush could very well be next with her August primary against DA Wesley Bell.