{"id":1240061,"date":"2022-01-25T18:07:11","date_gmt":"2022-01-25T23:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1240061"},"modified":"2022-01-25T18:07:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T23:07:14","slug":"former-aoc-ally-paul-jean-swearengin-says-rep-betrayed-small-donors-who-gave-up-their-lunch-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-aoc-ally-paul-jean-swearengin-says-rep-betrayed-small-donors-who-gave-up-their-lunch-money\/","title":{"rendered":"Former AOC Ally Paul Jean Swearengin Says Rep Betrayed Small Donors Who \u2018Gave Up Their Lunch Money\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fformer-aoc-ally-paul-jean-swearengin-says-rep-betrayed-small-donors-who-gave-up-their-lunch-money%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1240061&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>Paula Jean Swearengin, a former West Virginia Senate candidate, blasted Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday for a series of donations to \u201ccorporate candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Swearengin <a href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Paula_Jean_Swearengin\">lost<\/a> to incumbent Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito by more than 40 points in 2020 and to Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin by nearly 40 in a 2018 primary. She appeared in the 2019 Netflix documentary \u201cKnock Down The House\u201d alongside Ocasio-Cortez and now-Democratic Missouri Rep. Cori Bush. All three were <a href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Justice_Democrats\">endorsed<\/a> by the left-wing group Justice Democrats, although only Ocasio-Cortez won during the cycle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople sacrificed, millions of Americans, for so-called grassroots campaigns, and I think that the progressive label has been co-opted by a lot of these corporate candidates. A lot of people gave up a lot of their time, millions of Americans did, they gave up their money, they gave up their lunch, their bill money, to fight for candidates that now some of them are elected and they\u2019re not fighting for us,\u201d Swearengin told podcast host and former Bernie Sanders press secretary Briahna Joy Gray.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\u201cAOC took grassroots money with her grassroots pack and gave it to corporate candidates. People that did give up their lunch money\u2013that did work hard for her\u2026she turned it around and gave it to people she\u2019s supposed to fight against.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2013<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/paulajean2020?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@paulajean2020<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Oi79D8fnnD\">https:\/\/t.co\/Oi79D8fnnD<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/n1bPSqbP8W\">pic.twitter.com\/n1bPSqbP8W<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/briebriejoy\/status\/1485721394386292745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 24, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cAOC, you know, she took grassroots money with her grassroots PAC and gave it to corporate candidates. People that did give up their lunch money, people that did work hard for her, people that did take their bill money and give it to her. And you know she turned around and gave it to people that she\u2019s supposed to fight against,\u201d Swearengin continued.<\/p>\n<p>Ocasio-Cortez <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2020\/01\/12\/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-pac-dccc-dues\/\">announced<\/a> the Courage to Change Political Action Committee (PAC) in January 2020, shortly after the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) announced that it would not employ vendors and firms that worked on behalf of primary challengers to incumbents. Through Courage to Change, Ocasio-Cortez <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/political-action-committees-pacs\/courage-to-change\/C00692202\/candidate-recipients\/2020\">distributed<\/a> campaign funds to 21 candidates during the 2020 election cycle, and 33 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/political-action-committees-pacs\/courage-to-change\/C00692202\/candidate-recipients\/2022\">candidates<\/a> during the 2022 election cycle. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2020\/07\/05\/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-green-new-deal-elections\/\">(RELATED: Here\u2019s How Dem Candidates Who Supported Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s Green New Deal Are Faring In The Primaries)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Six relatively moderate Democratic House members, including Michigan Rep. Elissa <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fec.gov\/data\/disbursements\/?committee_id=C00650150&amp;two_year_transaction_period=2022&amp;data_type=processed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Slotkin<\/a>, New Hampshire Rep. Chris Pappas, and Wisconsin Rep. Ron Kind <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210419231952\/https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/finance\/us-republicans-spotlight-aoc-pacs-contributions-vulnerable-house-democrats-2021-04-19\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">returned<\/a> the contributions after the National Republican Congressional Committee <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nrcc.org\/2021\/04\/19\/will-axne-be-next\/\">publicized<\/a> them. Maine Rep. Jared Golden, who was the only Democrat in the House to oppose the Build Back Better social spending package, is among the 27 Democrats who did not refund a Courage to Change donation.<\/p>\n<p>Swearengin is not the first left-wing political figure to criticize Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s PAC operations. Ross Barkan, a columnist for The Guardian and former New York state Senate candidate, <a href=\"https:\/\/rossbarkan.substack.com\/p\/alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-curious\">accused<\/a> Ocasio-Cortez and Courage of Change of \u201cavoid[ing]\u2026 the toughest fights\u201d while \u201csidelining\u201d the Democratic Socialists of America.<\/p>\n<p>Eva Putzova, who <a href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Eva_Putzova\">attempted<\/a> to primary Arizona Rep. Tom O\u2019Halleran in 2020, <a href=\"https:\/\/mobile.twitter.com\/EvaPutzova\/status\/1383060229697335302\">asserted<\/a> that Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s donation to O\u2019Halleran\u2019s campaign is proof that the organization \u201c<span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">doesn\u2019t live up to its own declared purpose.\u201d She also <a href=\"https:\/\/mobile.twitter.com\/EvaPutzova\/status\/1383060236299165696\">described<\/a> the donation as \u201ca stab into the back of all progressive challengers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paula Jean Swearengin, a former West Virginia Senate candidate, blasted Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday for a series of donations to \u201ccorporate candidates.\u201dSwearengin lost to incumbent Republican &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1240061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1240061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1240061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1240061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1240061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}