AOC warns 'cynics' are turning Democrats against immigrants and trans people from church pulpit

WASHINGTON, DC: At All Saints Church in Syracuse, New York, Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez urged Democrats not to let cynics split the party by pitting them against immigrants and trans people before the midterms. She told people in the room to stay active and organized as November approached.

Addressing a private audience, Ocasio-Cortez also applauded the community for organizing against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez frames divisions as a deliberate political strategy

“The power of community organizing and coming together to ensure that when this community stood up to ICE,” she said, mentioning how the community rallied to push for the release of two individuals detained by ICE. “We’ve been able to protect our community and keep us together.”

The video below shows Ocasio-Cortez addressing the audience at All Saints Church. 

The congresswoman also warned that “people” and “cynics,” presumably Republicans, want to “demobilize a people’s movement” and do so with “cynical narratives from the right, that we are divided, to make us turn against our immigrant brothers and sisters, our trans brothers and sisters and neighbors and siblings, and divide us along every line imaginable.”

She did not draw a distinction between legal and illegal immigration status in her remarks.

Ocasio-Cortez challenged those in the room to think hard about political strategy.

Their effort can’t revolve around simply chasing after conservative voters; it has to be broader and more ambitious.

“The goal here is not just persuasion from conservative voters, but electorate expansion,” she said.

This is the same church that held a “pride mass” this summer, asserting that the rainbow is a “beautiful” symbol of God’s diversity.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appeared at National Baptist Convention

Ocasio-Cortez’s visit to Syracuse looked a lot like her appearance at the National Baptist Convention in Orlando in September.

In both cases, she used religious language, framing her political work as part of something spiritual.

“We said we must have the faith of a mustard seed. We must organize anyway,” she said. “One year later, out of nowhere, a judge strikes down Utah’s map and they are ordered to redraw."

"And it is only because of the organizing that we did in faith when there was no evidence. There was nothing to point to, no, nothing material. But we said we have to do this work. It was only because of that that when those maps were drawn, people were ready. And now we stand to gain a seat in Utah," Ocasio-Cortez added.

Further, she told the crowd she had been “amazed watching how God works” in advancing progressive politics.

These kinds of events, including Ocasio-Cortez’s recent stop, show a bigger trend this year: progressive lawmakers turning to churches and religious language to organize and energize voters before the midterms.

Both parties now lean on this approach, hoping faith-based rhetoric gives them an edge in a tightly contested election season.