#GOP candidate claims he can topple ‘vulnerable’ AOC in general election

The Republican candidate challenging Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claims he has a real shot at toppling the first-term democratic socialist firebrand in the general election.

The campaign of ex-cop and retired teacher John Cummings said the 14th congressional district, covering portions of The Bronx and Queens, is populated with practical, working class voters — not radical leftists like AOC.

“A well-funded candidate with an NYPD/education background and deep ties to the district can beat AOC,” reads a campaign strategy memo prepared by Cummings campaign manager Chapin Fay and consultant Corey Vale, under the heading, “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Re-Election in Jeopardy.”

“We have raised over $3.5 million from over 70,000 donors from all 50 states; and we have the candidate and message to contrast with AOC’s radical socialist agenda and unbelievable disconnect from the very voters she claims to represent.”

They claim internal polling shows their campaign is “not a vanity exercise” and that AOC, while a well-funded national figure, is “vulnerable” in the district.

But Cummings is clearly the underdog and would have to make up ground, the memo’s own survey reveals.

An internal poll of 400 voters in the district in May found that 46 percent had a favorable view of the lefty incumbent and 35 percent had an unfavorable view with the rest undecided.

Fifty-two percent of respondents said they support her reelection in a district that former President Barack Obama carried by 62 points and Hillary Clinton by 57 points against Donald Trump in 2016, the advisers said.

“Even in this overwhelmingly Democrat district, voters oppose Socialism,” the Cummings campaign advisers said.

Sixty percent of voters called AOC “very liberal” and 38 percent described her as an “out of touch radical”, the Cummings campaign said.

Seventy-one percent of voters had a favorable view of the NYPD, but that was before the protests ignited by the brutality death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

“Yes … John is a moderate Republican running in a solidly blue district. But AOC’s victory is far from certain and her negatives within the district are much higher than expected. Additionally, there has never been a well-funded Moderate Republican candidate running in District 14, let alone a common- sense cop and schoolteacher,” Fay and Vale said.

AOC easily defeated business journalist Michelle Caruso-Cabrera in the June 23 Democratic primary and is widely believed to easily win reelection.

The congresswoman captured 72 percent of the machine tally to 19 percent for her chief rival, followed by two other candidates.

Caruso-Cabrera pounded the incumbent for her opposition to Amazon’s scuttled plan to open a headquarters in Queens as well her votes in Congress – but the attacks didn’t resonate.

The Cummings’ campaign believes AOC’s opposition to the Amazon deal will hurt her among more moderate pro-jobs voters in the general election.