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A former Democratic Senate candidate once dubbed the “AOC of the Midwest” told Fox News host Harris Faulkner that Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York would not be a successful leader for the party.

Left-wing media figures and Congressional Democrats blasted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over his decision to help pass a GOP-backed spending bill to prevent a government shutdown. Former Democratic Senatorial candidate Morgan Harper of Ohio told Faulkner that while Democrats needed new leaders, Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most liberal members of the House of Representatives wouldn’t help in Ohio, even though the party needed new leadership. Multipleoutlets have characterized Harper as being on the left wing of the Democratic Party. 

“I do think it’s troubling in this moment, with so much going on in the country, that we have these same people that were part of the problem that are continuing to keep focus on the past when we right now need a book written by a Democrat of how to win,” Harper told Faulkner, while criticizing books about the decline of President Joe Biden during his term in office. “That’s what a lot of Democratic voters are looking for.”

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During Harper’s unsuccessful 2022 U.S. Senate bid, media sources compared policies she backed to those embraced by “the Squad,” an informal group of far-left House members including Ocasio-Cortez. Fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar ran a headline asking, “Is Morgan Harper the AOC of the Midwest?”

Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California urged Ocasio-Cortez to challenge Schumer in the 2028 Democratic primary, when Schumer is up for re-election to his sixth term in the Senate. Ocasio-Cortez held a double-digit lead over Schumer in a hypothetical match-up in a poll released Friday by Data for Progress.

Harper said that the focus on how the Democrats’ handled Biden’s apparent decline was not helping the party prepare for future elections.

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“There is a resistance among many folks in Democratic Politics to let go and let a new generation take over,” Harper said. “A generation that is going to connect, especially with young people, more effectively. Because this kind of story and these kinds of books are doing nothing to persuade the people that stayed home.”

A Wall Street Journal article published Dec. 19 revealed White House aides “insulated” then-President Joe Biden, even from Cabinet members, as his health declined, months after similar articlespublished by outlet earlier in the year generated pushback from some media outlets.

“When I talk to people in Columbus, Ohio, they are looking for a new generation of leadership. I don’t think they will accept anything less,” Harper said.

“Is AOC that?” Faulkner asked, with Harper responding, “In Ohio, AOC is not that.”

Harper unsuccessfully challenged Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio for the party’s nomination for Ohio’s Third Congressional District. In 2022, she unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic nomination for an open U.S. Senate seat losing to Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio.

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