Voters in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's district are fans of a lot of her policies, but 70% of them don't like her democratic socialist label
- The majority of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's constituents approve of the freshman congresswoman, but most don't identify - as she does - with "democratic socialism."
- A strong majority of Ocasio-Cortez's constituents are not happy with her opposition to Amazon's proposed Queens headquarters, plans for which were scrapped by the e-commerce giant earlier this year amid opposition from a number of local lawmakers.
- But voters in New York's 14th congressional district strongly support most of Ocasio-Cortez policies, including Medicare-for-all, free public college, a federal job guarantee, and hiking taxes on income above $10 million.
While Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is well-liked by voters in her home district in New York City, the congresswoman's constituents largely don't identify with "democratic socialism" - a label Ocasio-Cortez uses to describe her progressive politics.
Voters in New York's 14th congressional district, located in the Bronx and Queens, also broke from Ocasio-Cortez on her forceful stand against Amazon's proposed opening of a new headquarters in Queens, according to a Siena College poll published Wednesday.
57% of her constituents said Amazon's reversal was bad for New York, and 58% were in favor of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's attempts to cut a new deal with the e-commerce giant.
Read more: New Yorkers are blaming 'villain' Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after Amazon abandoned its HQ2 plans
While Ocasio-Cortez considers herself a democratic socialist, just a quarter of her constituents identity with that label. 70% of voters say they use other labels to describe their political beliefs.
But strong majorities of Ocasio-Cortez's voters support her policy proposals. About three-quarters are in favor of free tuition at public colleges, banning assault weapons, Medicare-for-all, and a federal jobs guarantee. Nearly 60% support hiking taxes on income over $10 million, and 52% support impeaching President Donald Trump.
Just 41% support Ocasio-Cortez's ambitious Green New Deal resolution - a broad plan to make the US economy carbon neutral and invest heavily in infrastructure and the social safety net. Twenty percent opposed the plan and 38% said they didn't know enough about it to have an opinion.
With a 52% approval rating, the congresswoman had higher net favorability rating than any other major politician in her state, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. She also had a slightly higher net favorability than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Siena poll found.
Ocasio-Cortez is better liked among people of color, young people, and women. While 64% of black and Latinx voters approve of the 29-year-old lawmaker, just 45% of white voters view her favorably.
The outspoken freshman lawmaker is well-known among her constituents - just 15% of them said they didn't have an opinion about her.
In contrast, 38% of those polled said they didn't know enough to have an opinion about Ocasio-Cortez's predecessor, Joe Crowley, who held the seat for two decades. Ocasio-Cortez was also better known than Gillibrand, who's running for president.
The survey of 607 registered voters in 14th congressional district was conducted between March 31 and April 4 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.