Ocasio-Cortez: ‘Tonight’s a Tough Night’ After Biden Victories

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), a top surrogate for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) addressed former Vice President Joe Biden’s big primary victories Tuesday night, calling it “a tough night.”

“There’s no sugar-coating it — tonight’s a tough night. Tonight’s a tough night for the movement overall,” Ocasio-Cortez said during an Instagram Live broadcast Tuesday night. “Tonight is a tough night electorally.”

Sanders suffered a series of devastating defeats, particularly in Michigan where he won by 22 points in 2016 against Hillary Clinton and helped propel his insurgent candidacy. Biden also dominated in Mississippi and Missouri, while results from Washington, Idaho, and North Dakota were starting coming in.

She congratulated Biden on his Tuesday primary victories saying, “If you win a race, you win a race.”

Ocasio-Cortez cited the generational gap in support between Sanders and Biden, urging the young supporters not to lose hope in electoral politics.

“Older voters, which we know are more reliable voters, which we know turn out, have decisively gone to former Vice President Biden,” Ocasio-Cortez said “We’re not talking about a generational bump or a little bit of an edge — it is decisively different and that is something we need to read into, something we need to pay attention to. There’s a generational divide within the Democratic Party on health care, on climate change, on foreign policy, pretty much every policy imaginable. Now is the time to leverage that. Now is the time to ask for accountability. And now is the time to ask for commitments — real commitments — not just gestures.”

Despite the loss, Ocasio-Cortez declared it a win for the movement based on issues.

“Even if you abhor these results, even if you are shocked, appalled and all of these things, it’s really important to at least understand what is happening in front of you. And the better you can understand it, the more you can deconstruct it, and then reverse-engineer it, and develop a plan to win over and over again,” she said. “What is important is that we are winning on the issues and we are winning over people on the most substantive reasons for voting. The notion of electability and ideas of what people think will defeat Donald Trump is — as we have known, have been very decisive in shaping this primary.”

The freshman lawmakers shot down rumors that she will run for president in 2028 .

“I want to level with all of you, I’m not a person that aspires to a position, I aspire to a mission,” she said. “We have a lot of problems that need addressed, but we rely too much on saviors. We can’t swing from one savior to another. There’s a lot of savior-ism in politics, like ‘Who’s next?’ and ‘Who’s gonna save us?’ And the answer is you. The answer is people.”