Ocasio-Cortez Breaks With 'Woke 1' After Hong Loses Wisconsin Primary by 7 Points in Dane
Updated
Updated · Slate · Aug 17
Ocasio-Cortez Breaks With 'Woke 1' After Hong Loses Wisconsin Primary by 7 Points in Dane
3 articles · Updated · Slate · Aug 17
Summary
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used an Aug. 9 ABC appearance to echo the line "Woke 1 was crazyyyy," publicly separating herself from the style of left politics tied to Francesca Hong.
Hong’s defeat in Wisconsin gave that shift fresh force: the Democratic Socialist had been seen as the front-runner but underperformed badly, winning Dane County by just 7 points before losing to David Crowley’s late reentered campaign.
The backlash centered on Hong’s 2020 call to "cancel" Thanksgiving over "colonialism" that killed Indigenous "folx," which critics cast as a symbol of the scolding, hyper-online politics now labeled "Woke 1."
For Ocasio-Cortez and other left figures, the emerging lesson is not to abandon the underlying causes but to recast them in a broader, less punitive form that can reach ordinary voters.