Why the media is going berserk for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – and why some Democrats are jealous

Do we, the media, write too much about the congresswoman from New York’s 14th district?

Some people, Democrats among them, would say the answer is yes. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may be young and stylish and have a large Twitter following – a handy 2.3 million at last look – but what has she actually done other than get elected? She has no legislative record to talk about, no record as an administrator. And yet she pops up on primetime television slots that politicians who have been at this for decades would die for, and even takes potshots at her own party.

“I’m sure Ms Cortez means well, but there’s almost an outstanding rule: don’t attack your own people,” Democratic congressman Emanuel Cleaver told Politico in an article headlined: “Exasperated Democrats try to rein in Ocasio-Cortez”. “We just don’t need sniping in our Democratic caucus.”

The 74-year-old Cleaver misses the point entirely. Ocasio-Cortez is bright and new and shiny, which is why she is a novelty for the media. As an industry, we’re always looking for something new and fresh.

But the 29-year-old congressman, who The Independent was among the first to interview when she ran for office last year, is much more than that; she is smart, has new and fresh ideas, has thoughts about political organising that excite the party’s grassroots. With Beto O’Rourke running a close second, she’s generating more excitement within the party than anyone else. By a long shot.

And it’s not just that Ocasio-Cortez, a young woman of colour, appears authentic in a political system so deadened by lobbyists and super-PAC (political action committee) money.

When she made history last year as the youngest congresswoman ever elected, she was among a number of people who marked firsts – the first Muslim women elected to congress, the first Native American, Tennessee’s first female senator, Connecticut’s first black congresswoman and Massachusetts’ first black congresswoman.

A record 127 women will serve in the 116th Congress. Ocasio-Cortez has become a figurehead and symbol of the changes sweeping modern US politics.

Republicans clearly despise her, and some elements of the media are quick to seize on any of her slips. (She said last week the Daily Mail had dispatched a reporter to offer to pay her boyfriend’s relatives for any stories about her.)

It may be that at some point Ocasio-Cortez’s novelty will ease off, not just with the media but with the public. You may see fewer stories about her recipe for mac and cheese. It may also be that at some point the media turns on her. She would not be the first person to have been lionised, only for the knives to be later be sharpened in preparation for butchery.

But for now, she’s a property. For now, she’s going to continue to make the headlines.

Yours,

Andrew Buncombe

US digital editor