#AOC’s ‘squad’ is more about ‘personality’ than ‘politics’

Queens Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is looking to expand her “squad” in the House, putting her considerable firepower behind a slew of progressive primary challengers in New York Tuesday — but insiders say she’s been pulling her punches.

Friends and allies of AOC as well as Democratic insiders say lawmakers who have gone the extra mile to work with her on the Hill have been spared the rod — even if their records and philosophies don’t align with her progressive values.

“If she’s got a personal relationship with you then she is less likely to support political opposition to you. Significantly less likely. A lot of her political decisions are based on personal feelings and relationships,” one person familiar with her thinking told The Post.

“The price of admission to the squad has less to do with politics than with personality.”

In open seats for retiring Reps. Nita Lowey and José E. Serrano, the freshman socialist has backed Mondaire Jones and Samelys López respectively. AOC has also endorsed educator Jamaal Bowman, who is looking to knock off longtime Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel, in open defiance of Engel-backer Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Those in the know say Engel’s fatal mistake wasn’t that he had a bad relationship with AOC, but the fact he didn’t take the time to develop a good one.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney and Ocasio-Cortez have developed a chummy bond in Congress, where they serve on both the Committee on Financial Services and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Though they aren’t “friends” and you won’t see them dining out together, they have worked on a number of pieces of legislation and initiatives, like 2020 Census awareness, Immigration and Customs Enforcement accountability, protecting NYCHA residents during the COVID-19 pandemic, and urging the FDA to overturn the ban on LGBT Americans from donating blood. Communication between their offices to collaborate on these and other issues is frequent and initiated by both women.

Maloney is facing two primary challengers from the left, Suraj Patel and Lauren Ashcraft, the latter of whom has been endorsed by the AOC-aligned political action committee Brand New Congress. The race is fertile ground for woke challengers given Maloney’s vote for both the Iraq War and the 1994 crime bill, which Democrats today blame for mass incarceration.

But Ocasio-Cortez has stayed out of the race.

AOC has similar feelings for Brooklyn Rep. Yvette Clarke, who has served in the House since 2007. The two also have a close working relationship and Clarke was one of the original co-sponsors of AOC’s Green New Deal legislation. Clarke narrowly survived a progressive challenge from Adem Bunkeddeko in 2018. This year she faces him again, in addition to City Councilman Chaim Deutsch on her right flank.

To defend her seat Clarke has larded her campaign with corporate PAC money — a big no-no for AOC-style progressives. Nearly three quarters of Clarke’s $705,454 campaign war chest comes from PACs, including those representing T-Mobile USA, Morgan Stanley, AT&T, Comcast McDonald’s and Amazon.

Clarke (and Maloney) both signed a letter to Jeff Bezos begging the Amazon boss to consider New York City for their corporate headquarters — something AOC and her allies bitterly opposed and ultimately derailed. Last year Clarke also faced questions over $120,000 which disappeared from her congressional office’s operations budget.

But AOC has also stayed out of that race too.

Ocasio-Cortez kept out of the Engel race as long as she could, resisting months of lobbying from those around her, insiders say. She only pulled the trigger last week, after Engel was busted on a hot mic saying he wouldn’t care about the George Floyd protests if he didn’t have a primary.

AOC is less disposed to some of the men of the New York and metro-area delegations, like Brooklyn/Queens Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who engaged in a nasty public Twitter spat with her old chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti. She also doesn’t care for New Jersey Democrat Josh Gottheimer, who has been a forceful critic of the squad.

Though her PAC, Courage to Change, has thrown her support and money behind seven progressive candidates around the country, all but Samelys Lopez were out of state.

Ocasio-Cortez would also be more than happy if notorious Queens Rep. Gregory Meeks were knocked off by his progressive challenger Shaniyat Chowdhury. Meeks, has long been cited as one of the most corrupt members of Congress, and he replaced Rep. Joe Crowley as Queens party boss after Crowley lost to AOC in 2018. He played a pivotal role in beating back AOC’s candidate for district attorney, Tiffany Caban, last year.

Chowdhury, 28, a former bartender and Marine who worked on AOC’s campaign, has so far failed to catch fire, and Ocasio-Cortez is loathe step in and risk future cooperation with Meeks by backing a loser.

“She’s not willing to die on every hill. She picks her spot,” veteran Democratic strategist James Carville, who admires AOC’s savviness, told The Post. “If you’re a baseball fan, she’s patient at the plate. She doesn’t swing at every pitch.”

New York primary voters will head to the polls on Tuesday.

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AOC’s FRIENDS AND ENEMIES:

AOC’s friends:

• Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan): AOC and Maloney sit on two committees together and have worked closely on legislation and initiatives.
• Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-Brooklyn):Clarke was an original co-sponsor of Ocasio-Cortez’ Green New Deal legislation.
• Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Brooklyn):Velazquez, who, like AOC, is of Puerto Rican heritage, has been an unofficial mentor to her freshman colleague.

AOC’s enemies:

• Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D–N.J.): Gottheimer, a conservative Dem from Wykoff, has been a longtime critic of the squad.
• Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn): Jeffries doesn’t have a much of a relationship with AOC, and didn’t help things by publicly attacking her former chief of staff on Twitter.
• Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Queens): Once called the most corrupt House member, Democrat replaced AOC’s predecessor, Joe Crowley, as head of the Queens party.