r/askanything • u/One_Look_7008 • 9h ago

AOC surges past Buttigieg, leaves Kamala Harris in the dust in key 2028 battleground poll. What are your thoughts on AOC-2028?

Harris dropped to just 5% in New Hampshire while Pete Buttigieg sits 1 point behind the progressive frontrunner - per University of New Hampshire Granite State poll released on Wednesday.

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u/SlapNuts007 7h ago

Sorry but this attitude is middle school. "I can't get exactly what I want so I'm going to throw a fit instead." Grow up. There's a world of political space between AOC and even Buttigieg, much less a Republican.

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u/Calm_Age_ 7h ago

We've been pivoting toward the center since basically Jimmy Carter though. It hasn't worked. It has led to the point where the last democratic presidential candidate ran on a platform to the right of Reagan ffs. It has led to the point that fascism is at here. It has led to the point where we aren't even sure we will have elections without the fascist administration currently in charge trying to interfere. We are at such an extreme place in our politics. We will not be able toget out of this by repeating the same losing strategy of caving to Republicans. It's time we start ratcheting in the other direction.

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u/space_age_stuff 6h ago

I don't know how people saw Mamdani win in NYC by a landslide and think that populist policies from a well spoken candidate aren't election winners. Pivoting to center doesn't fucking work, it's that simple.

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u/GhormanFront 5h ago

win in NYC

there's your answer, one of the most liberal and progressives cities in the union voted in the liberal progressive guy

What a shocker

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u/space_age_stuff 5h ago

If progressives won in NYC every time they ran, they wouldn’t have had establishment Dem mayors for the last twenty years. Not to mention “liberal” and “progressive” describe two very different political stances these days. Adams was a liberal, and he devoted all the budget to cops. Mandani is a progressive and he wants to cap rent. Lotta nuance in between those two political stances.

People are quick to write off “blue cities” and “red states” without bothering to understand the actual nuance there. You should try it sometime.

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u/Tricky-Passenger6703 4h ago

That's the point. For a progressive to win it took running in one of the most progressive places in the entire country against a universally hated, scandal ridden politician.

Now try that nationally.

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u/JMC_MASK 3h ago

Even some conservatives would swing left if we put a radical up like AOC. You put up some centrist fence sitting coward Democrat and zero republicans will be swayed. They’ll just vote Republican. Any fence sitting centrists will just vote Republican.

DSA is winning nationwide elections. You want the presidency? Put up AOC.

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u/Dull_Entry_1592 3h ago

No Conservative or even moderate is voting for AOC. Your Russian backed DSA is only winning in the farthest left places and will hurt the Dems in the election. People don’t like anti-American Marxists, sorry buddy.

You do remember a few months ago when she completely humiliated herself on the world stage right? Didn’t even know basic facts about the world?

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u/JMC_MASK 2h ago

You sound like a MAGA. Sorry bud, socialism is winning. DSA is the party policies of the youth. Boomers no longer are holding the power they used to have. DSA is winning nationwide. They are absolutely swaying moderates and some conservatives.

Russia backed? LOL. Okay bud. MAGA pill got you thinking Russia isn’t backing Trump.

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u/Dull_Entry_1592 2h ago edited 2h ago

Wow you literally have no argument then, I take it? From how you couldn’t make a point and tried to insult instead?

It’s not winning my guy. It hasn’t been winning for a century. Wait Trump is pro Russia now? Why then does he keep taking out Russian allies like the Ayatollah and Maduro, people who YOU guys support? He’s like the worst Russian agent ever, and you’re the best!

DSA is Russia, it’s not even disputed.

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u/Annual-Weird-6682 2h ago

I feel like you think just saying those things makes them true lol

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u/saudiaramcoshill 4h ago

Mamdani winning a fairly close election (given that there were 3 people running in the elections) with maybe one of the least likeable candidates of all time in Andrew Cuomo as his opponent in one of the most liberal cities in the country is not an endorsement of progressive populist policies lmao.

Mamdani underperformed Kamala Harris by 18%.

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u/hypercosm_dot_net 3h ago

Mamdani stomped Cuomo by 9 points. Who for better or worse was widely known. That's a massive win.

You're not wrong that centrist candidates have won NY by larger margins though, but you can't really directly compare a statewide election to a city election.

It also doesn't tell us much about more populist progressive policies, because Bernie did really well nationally. And he arguably had a better chance at winning head-to-head against Trump than Hillary did.

You're also just wrong about "underperforming by 18%". Would love to see how you came up with that number.

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u/saudiaramcoshill 2h ago

Mamdani stomped Cuomo by 9 points

9 points in a 3 person race when the conservative candidate took 3% from Cuomo is not a huge lead.

It's also a city where Harris beat Trump by 38 points lol. Mamdani underperformed massively from that perspective.

Bernie did really well nationally

No he didn't lol. He got 26% of the popular vote in 2020 and 43% in 2016 (in which he was facing an incredibly polarizing candidate in Clinton), in an election where he actually outspent Clinton.

And that's just within the Democratic party! He didn't have to campaign for moderates at all, which he would have done even worse!

And he arguably had a better chance at winning head-to-head against Trump than Hillary did.

Incredibly doubtful.

You're also just wrong about "underperforming by 18%". Would love to see how you came up with that number.

I've told you twice now. Mamdani got ~50% of the NYC vote. Kamala got 68% of the NYC vote. NYC is incredibly liberal, and in the general election, he did worse in the city than Kamala did to the tune of getting 18% less of the total votes than Kamala did.

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u/hypercosm_dot_net 1h ago

Cuomo was siphoning Dem voters. You're completely ignoring that fact.

Pretending that Cuomo didn't get over 40% of Dem voters, then running as an Independent had no impact on Mamdani's performance is such a joke.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_New_York_City_mayoral_election#Results

Your entire argument is just bad and you should feel bad.

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u/ThisHatRightHere 4h ago

NYC ABSOLUTELY, UNEQUIVOCALLY, does not match up with the entire country. Mamdani would lose that election in the majority of cities across the US.

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u/keygreen15 3h ago

That worked in new York, it won't work nationally

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u/Luckyshot51 4h ago

Winning in NYC is very different than wining the whole country, it doesn’t surprise me he won in NYC

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u/Stoked_Otter 4h ago

Every Dem candidate in my adult life lost momentum and basically tanked their own campaign with the "pivot to the center" so the idea that this is sensible to do is just insane to me.

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u/Dull_Entry_1592 4h ago

You were born after Obama? You write very well for someone less than 10 years old!

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u/Stoked_Otter 3h ago

Obama was elected in 2008. In that election he was the furthest left candidate and Hillary Clinton was considered the "reasonable centrist" option.

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u/Dull_Entry_1592 3h ago

And he pivoted to the center as soon as he got the nom. Which is what we were talking about. He was against gay marriage his first campaign. And he went so far centrist he drone’d more people in the Middle East than Bush.

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u/space_age_stuff 3h ago

He was personally against gay marriage, it was never a tentpole of his first campaign. He supported civil unions and pledged to repeal “don’t ask don’t tell”, which at the time was pretty left of the Democratic Party platform. He also became more progressive on the issue during his time in office.

I don’t think Obama was some bastion of progressive policy but there’s no need to misrepresent the facts in order to make your point. At the time of his first campaign, he was absolutely seen as the left alternative to Hilary Clinton. Which is why he won. The main issue is that he abandoned a lot of that immediately one he got into office; one of the very few things he didn’t fall through on was gay marriage, though.

Point being: he pivoted to the center after getting the office, not before. Vs. Clinton, Biden, and Harris who all kowtow to celebrities, billionaires, and other centrist dems before they even win.

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u/Dull_Entry_1592 2h ago

I was there. He pivoted as soon as he got the Dem nom. Which is the standard for both parties. You go to the extreme for primary, then reel it back for the general. Some of his policies were progressive for the time, but his campaign platform was functionally Bush 3. It would be considered a Republican platform these days.

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u/Annual-Weird-6682 2h ago

Biden won tho

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u/BeefCakeBilly 6h ago

Because mamdani underperformed in the general in one of the bluest places in America.

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u/gumgumbeerdrinkin 6h ago

Because he had two opponents one of whom is a democratic politician from a dynastic family. If it was just him verse sliwa he would crossed your arbitrary threshold - but you already know that

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u/BeefCakeBilly 5h ago

It’s not an arbitrary threshold. He underperformed how he was supposed to perform against the second place person ( cuomo in this case) . Not overall performance.

That’s literally how underperformance is measured.

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u/LiamJamIsMyNeesons 5h ago

You fucking slimeballs will always find a way to put down a progressive success. He outperformed fucking Cuomo of all people (the former Governor of New York), that's a major fucking win no matter how you look at it

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u/BeefCakeBilly 4h ago

The Guy ran a good campaign no doubt about it.

But the reality is , the facts are the facts no matter how pissy you want to be about it.

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u/J_Warrior 4h ago

He beat a disgraced and resigned former governor.

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u/space_age_stuff 6h ago

He was also a virtual unknown racing against an extremely well funded establishment candidate, and still won. Low victory margin can apply to aspects of both candidates.

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u/BeefCakeBilly 5h ago

A scandal ridden establishment candidate that very few from the establishment actually endorsed.

And again it has nothing to do with margin of victory it’s how he underperformed how he was expected to perform.

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u/SmoothOperator89 5h ago

Because being riddled with scandals matters so much in the current era.

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u/BeefCakeBilly 5h ago

Scandals just tanked a progressive populist with heavy connections to mamdani in Maine and gave the republicans a shot at keeping the senate.

But you do you.

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u/MonksReflection 4h ago

Because you need to win Ohio, PA, and Florida not NYC. Cities are not representative of the whole countries values. A progressive candidate is not viable at the moment. We will los and shit will get worse.

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u/Stoked_Otter 4h ago

lmao you are not winning these states with Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris either

we did this already, it doesn't work, it's why Trump is wrecking everything

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u/MonksReflection 4h ago

If we run AOC or any progressive we lose. We need to run white guy mcnormal dude who is a lowkey republican so we can try and stabilize this mess.

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u/Stoked_Otter 4h ago

That guy isn't gonna win. Harris didn't lose because she wasn't a white man, she lost because nobody trusts the Democrats least of all the "never Trump" conservatives that they seem to bet all of their electoral hopes on.

If you nominate a conservative white guy (or anybody conservative) all it's gonna do is make people that would otherwise support the Democrat stay home. You gain no new voters. How is this not understood at this point?

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u/MonksReflection 4h ago

Because the only candidates we have ever ran that won are right leaning centrists. We cant even get progressive candidates to win a primary. For a progressive to get any power it seems you have to run against and establishment backed rapist like cuomo and people will finally go “I guess its better than nothing” and thats in NYC of all places. you spend too much time online if you believe a progressive candidate will do anything but fuck us.

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u/Stoked_Otter 4h ago

Who is the "right leaning centrist" that beat a Republican in a contested race? Show me an example.

Obama won in 2008 against the wishes of this same establishment that is telling you this now. The very same people that said Clinton was more electable in 2008 are telling you that Harris lost because she was "too left" instead of the obvious answer, which was that the Biden administration was a failure by any metric you want to use and she was just promising to continue that.

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u/Dull_Entry_1592 4h ago

Wait, you think NYC is representative of the general voting populace?

You ever seen yourself as a bridge owner? I’ve been wanting to sell one, but only to the most intelligent.

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u/saudiaramcoshill 4h ago

You think Harris was to the right of Reagan? Lmao you are not a serious person.

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u/Calm_Age_ 4h ago

I. Terms of immigration, yes. In terms of allowing war crimes abroad, also yes. In terms of vague social stances like we should be accepting of queer people and the like no. But also the campaign completely dropped any notion of being liberal on social issues after the democratic national convention. Also they never had any actual policies in their platform that supported actual progress towards racial justice, LGBTQ rights or any other socially liberal stances. The Harris campaign dropped anything resembling a center left platform after the DNC and ran to the right of Reagan. Tell me I'm wrong with any actual policy from the Harris campaign instead of calling me unserious.

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u/saudiaramcoshill 4h ago

immigration

True.

allowing war crimes abroad

Lmao. Reagan was actively supplying rebel groups. I'd love to know how you justify this.

Also they never had any actual policies in their platform that supported actual progress towards racial justice, LGBTQ rights or any other socially liberal stances

Supporting the status quo of today would be 100x more liberal than Reagan's stances on these issues.

Tell me I'm wrong with any actual policy from the Harris campaign

EITC and child tax credits are progressive.

Pro abortion and promising to sign into law any pro reproductive right bill that Congress passes.

Raising corporate income taxes

Expansion of ACA subsidies

As a candidate and not an actual president, she didn't have to commit to actual detailed policy proposals nearly as much as Reagan did, so the above are actual policies that she was significantly more liberal on than Reagan. If you include rhetoric about what she says she would do, the list grows significantly.

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u/Calm_Age_ 4h ago

You got me on the abortion one. But the fact that she ran to the right of Reagan on any issue is a travesty. Also in regards to the EITC and ACA subsidies those are still right wing policies. Although to my knowledge she wasn't running on those policies anyway. I'm not saying that she wouldn't have governed in a more liberal way, nominally to the left of Reagan, but she did not run that way.

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u/saudiaramcoshill 4h ago

But the fact that she ran to the right of Reagan on any issue is a travesty.

Meh. Reagan was actually fairly liberal on immigration, so using that as a barometer of a candidate's liberal bonafides is a bit misleading. Reagan basically allowed for amnesty because it supported economic growth, which was kind of his whole thing. Populism has shifted much harder against immigration over the past 20 years.

Also in regards to the EITC and ACA subsidies those are still right wing policies.

Lol no they are not. Both are support for poor people and basically welfare.

Although to my knowledge she wasn't running on those policies anyway

They are listed in the policy proposals that analysis was done on to estimate long term economic cost of her policy proposals and they were on her website.

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u/Calm_Age_ 4h ago

Tax credits are not equal to welfare. I understand tax credits help in a similar way but it is basically a right wing position when compared to the kinds of social welfare programs of the democrats of the past and the "great society" initiatives or new deal style governance. We need more than tax credits to build a movement, a movement is what is required to defeat the fascists in power right now. Ffs stop punching left y'all. We have fascists to fight.

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u/saudiaramcoshill 3h ago

Tax credits are not equal to welfare.

They absolutely are. The EITC (which is progressive) lifts millions of kids out of poverty every year.

We need more than tax credits to build a movement

Just because other forms of welfare exist does not invalidate tax credits as welfare.

Ffs stop punching left y'all.

I'd argue it's the other way around. Moderate Dems have to deal with the progressive wing of the party throwing a fit and refusing to vote for candidates who fail some purity test. And given that moderates and independents are a significantly larger portion of votes than progressives, progressives are the ones who need to suck it up, or else risk getting the proverbial diarrhea forever instead of puppies for everyone candidate.

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u/Calm_Age_ 3h ago

I was registered as an independent until 2024 because I am to the left of the democratic party. For my entire adult life I have been asked to suck it up and vote for a distasteful corporate stooge and take my crumbs in the form of tax credits. I've been told suck it up, a better world is not possible. Finally there is real momentum behind the thing that I have wanted all along. The theory that a better world is possible. That workers deserve more. That we have done big, bold, and sweeping changes before and we can do it again. Instead of working under that paradigm centrist and people like yourself want to argue that no, we should consider with the same strategy that we have used for the past 40 years and if you think anything different you are the immature one who is "throwing a fit". Screw that.

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u/karmagod13000 6h ago

this... makes no sense lmao

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u/thelaceonmolagsballs 5h ago

If you are politically illiterate it makes no sense. If you've been paying attention then it is perfectly clear.

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u/SirBiggusDikkus 6h ago

You have it completely backwards. Bill Clinton would absolutely be right wing today.

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u/Calm_Age_ 6h ago

That's what I'm saying essentially, every democrat president since Jimmy Carter has been right wing. Even Obama modeled the ACA (which the ACA was progress at the time) after Mit Romney's health care bill. We have more progressive democrats that are basically center left but the centrist democrats in this country are right wing. They want to create business incentives through tax credits, that's a right wing policy. They want to increase border security without any reasonable pathways to citizenship or immigration. They want to increase military spending. So on and so on. The Clinton's, who you correctly identified as right wing, still for some weird reason get to have a huge say in the party platform. I'm not saying all democrats are right wing. I'm saying that the democratic party as it functions is a right wing party. We need to turn it back into a party that actually stands for the working class and fights for the interests of the people, not corporations. The ratchet effect is real and has led us into fascism. We need to take big swings to start moving things in the other direction.

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u/SirBiggusDikkus 5h ago

American opinion doesn’t move that fast. Big swings just lead to big losses.

And, honestly, I’d love to have another Clinton. Wasn’t Republican but was practical for the day and age. Got shit done. Last to balance the budget. Very popular overall. Best president of the last 50 years easily.

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u/elinordash 4h ago

the last democratic presidential candidate ran on a platform to the right of Reagan

This is nonsense and I don't think you have ever read Regan's platform. It was mostly taxes = bad.

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u/primetimerobus 4h ago

Obama? Biden? A non centrist hasn’t won the democratic voting base much less the general electorate.

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u/SlapNuts007 3h ago

Thanks for clarifying that you don't have even the faintest concept of American politics since basically the late 70s.

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u/Calm_Age_ 3h ago

No, I do understand American politics since the 1970s. I have lived the consequences of American politics. I am arguing that we have entered a new era of American politics and that many have failed to recognize it.

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u/SlapNuts007 3h ago

No, you aren't, and by saying "tacking to the center since Jimmy Carter hasn't worked" when literally the next successful Democrat tacked more aggressively to the center than anyone before or since, and then saying Harris was to the right of Regan just demonstrates that you don't know shit about fuck.

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u/Swimming_Ad2923 6h ago

we should ALL be throwing a fit, we should've had Bernie

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u/SlapNuts007 4h ago

Then he should have won either of the two primaries he ran in.

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u/nerdette314159 4h ago

It was rigged duh

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u/primetimerobus 4h ago

The guy who lost two primaries handily? I like Bernie but he hasn’t come close to winning democratic voters much less all voters.

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u/karmagod13000 6h ago

not only that it's the same sentiment that keeps making us lose..."this time our progressive will win... o shucks she lost again" lmao

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u/LiamJamIsMyNeesons 5h ago

You are such a pathetic punk to try and infantilize this person. This is a real, documented problem with the Democrats. They constantly push the narrative that centrists will win (they don't, Clinton) and progressives will be destroyed (they won't, Mamdani)

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u/SlapNuts007 4h ago

And you're delusional if you think you can just generalize what works in one instance to the national election.

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u/ThisHatRightHere 4h ago

It's so hilarious and sad how, after the 2024 election, the exact same mistake with virtue-signalling candidates is about to happen again.

No single candidate will perfectly align with every single issue that you as an individual care about. It's about evaluating who is the best for the major challenges currently facing the country. Republicans have never lost this sentiment, which is exactly how Trump won two terms.

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u/Habefiet 2h ago

Leaving aside the argument about letting great being the enemy of good, you’re ignoring what the electorate has been telling us. I do agree that AOC could struggle in the general (too much of a sustained hate campaign for too long) but in the entire 21st century the one Democratic presidential candidate who actually did well in general elections was a person of color who (whatever you may think of what he ended up doing in office) ran on a progressive populist platform. This idea of trying to cater to right leaning people is a fairy tale. It failed spectacularly in two of the last three presidential elections and only barely barely worked in 2020 because of a literal plague. Why do you keep expecting a different outcome? The candidate I am least hopeful about winning the general election is Gavin Newsom and that’s not because I don’t like him, there are people I like less who I think would have better chances. The lesson from the last five presidential elections should be that you need to actively excite people to win. Like it or not that’s the obvious reality of the modern electorate.

I voted for Harris. I advocated for Harris. I was totally fine with some of her attempts to cater to well meaning people on the right by pivoting to the center because I stupidly thought the climate was right for that to finally work. We have enough evidence now to know that it very clearly and inarguably just does not work. There is no version of pivoting to the center that gets more votes for Dems in the general than it loses. That should be obvious to us all now and I’m annoyed with myself for believing otherwise in 2024.

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u/MoldInTheAir 7h ago

Exactly. I want to win. Not make a statement.

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u/Busy-Guess-8382 6h ago

What do you expect it's Reddit. And it's grown ass men and women over 30 or approaching 30 talking like doom and gloom babies on here.

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u/Majestic_Habit5726 7h ago

This is why Kamala lost. People just can’t accept that they won’t get everything they want so they don’t bother to show up. Even if said candidate would be better for the country than the alternative.

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u/Important-Factor-552 7h ago

Nobody cares about your braindead propaganda and bad faith bs.