The Maoist faction of the Democratic Socialists of America said on Tuesday that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is too Zionist and insufficiently socialist to be president of the United States.
The DSA’s Liberation Caucus issued a statement “on AOC’s (hypothetical) presidential run” saying that the 36-year-old congresswoman, who is one of the most prominent democratic socialists in the country, had failed its litmus tests for higher office.
“Liberation condemns Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s continued retreat from socialist politics and rejects any effort to present her as the future presidential standard-bearer for DSA, or for the broader socialist movement,” the group stated.
“AOC’s record demonstrates a consistent pattern of opportunism,” it added.
The group cited the DSA National Political Committee’s 2024 decision to withdraw its endorsement of Ocasio-Cortez over her failure “to meet conditions concerning Palestine solidarity,” including her lack of “firm anti-Zionism” and votes for resolutions defending Israel’s right to exist and to strengthen Israel’s Iron Dome air defenses.
“Her recent comments deepen her political retreat ever further into opportunism and co-optation by the bourgeoisie,” the Liberation Caucus said of Ocasio-Cortez’s Aug. 10 interview with CNN.
In the interview, she described far-left policies like police abolition as a “crazy” feature of the “Woke 1.0” political era.
The DSA’s internal Liberation Caucus formed in 2025 and describes itself as “a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist caucus in Democratic Socialists of America.”
Its website includes a section on “misconceptions about Maoism” and defends the mass starvation under the Chinese communist dictator as “inflated famine death tolls” intended to “heap scorn on socialism and attempt to justify the capitalist reversal.”
The DSA endorses political candidates but is not a political party and has no clear rules regarding membership.
The New York City DSA chapter has endorsed Ocasio-Cortez in all of her races, including her 2026 bid for re-election in November, even after the national organization withdrew its endorsement over her alleged affinity for Zionism.
Ocasio-Cortez has accused Israel of “genocide.”
At a DSA-NYC event in April, Ocasio-Cortez described herself as a DSA member, City and State New York reported.
She told fellow democratic socialists that she “would like us to be able to amplify our proactive votes and actions for Palestine” and described her deviations from the group’s anti-Israel line as “disagreements on small, on the dramatic minority of these actions.”
The Liberation Caucus said that any talk of nominating Ocasio-Cortez for president must be rejected.
“The current rumblings for and prospects of an AOC presidential campaign should be met with a clear answer from the socialist left: No,” the group said.
“We will not endorse or give succor to a campaign to put a social democrat at the head of an empire, where she will make even more capitulations to the imperialists and drag our organization into antagonistic contradiction after antagonistic contradiction,” it said.
The Marxist-Leninist-Maoists ultimately despaired of ever getting a majority of the American electorate to agree with whomever they might prefer for the presidency.
“Revolution will never come through the ballot box, and the ruling class will never allow an actual socialist to capture the White House,” the group said.
