Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez broke out a faux Southern accent during a Saturday campaign appearance in Tennessee.
Ocasio-Cortez, seen as a likely challenger for either the 2028 Democratic nomination for president or for the Senate seat held by Democratic New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, accentuated her remarks while campaigning for Democratic Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson. Pearson is running for the seat in the U.S. House of Representatives currently held by retiring Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen. Ocasio-Cortez urged Pearson’s supporters to not write off the state, which favors Republicans, while attempting to evoke the dynacism of a preacher.
WATCH:
AOC, from the “Bronx” sounding like a southern Baptist preacher while in Memphis. pic.twitter.com/TEHd6HbC3X
— MichaelRapaport (@MichaelRapaport) July 18, 2026
“We cannot afford to leave Tennessee behind,” Ocasio-Cortez, who was joined by Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley, said. “We cannot afford to leave Kentucky behind, Alabama behind, Mississippi behind, Georgia behind, South Carolina behind.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s attempted accent appears similar to the variety of accents then-Vice President Kamala Harris deployed while campaigning for president in 2024 as the Democratic nominee. At one point, Harris used two different accents during separate campaign stops on the same day.
AOC adopted a lower profile after a disastrous performance during a February security conference in Munich when asked about American policy on Taiwan. The democratic socialist lawmaker rambled for 40 seconds about whether the U.S. should send troops to defend the democratic Republic of China if the communist People’s Republic of China attacked the island.
The left-wing Democrat, one of the more famous members of “The Squad,” also repeated comments about the American northern states needing to “roll up to the South” that she drew fire for after making them during a May political appearance in Montgomery, Ala.
WATCH:
AOC: “It is time for the North to roll up to the South.”
What? pic.twitter.com/wLsOHfdg9Z
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 18, 2026
“We will not be chased out of places anymore, brothers and sisters,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “It’s going take all us together rejecting separation, for us organize and speak life into one another because we will, we will see the day where we will turn the crooked path straight.”
(DCNF)