Ocasio-Cortez appears to be recreating Obama’s multi-racial voter coalition

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Did you hear that?

The roar came as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) spoke from the pulpit to Black voters in Atlanta. Turnout is key to this year’s midterm fight for control of Congress, and Ocasio-Cortez is ringing the bell for people to rush the polls.

Here is Ocasio-Cortez: “What happens to Georgia, happens to New York. What happens to Tennessee, happens to California. What happens to Louisiana, happens to all of us, Ebenezer, because this is America. We are not divided by state. We are united by our humanity and common citizenship.”

Speaking against Republican redistricting efforts that are diminishing Black political presence in Congress she got people to their feet by saying: “We are not going back!”

This was a Latina from New York, in the South, in Martin Luther King’s former church, stirring up Black Democrats.

Ocasio-Cortez’s schedule over the last few weeks also included a voting rights rally for Black voters in Alabama and the Power Rising Summit, a Chicago meeting for “Black women to turn power into action and create an actionable agenda.”

Successful redistricting efforts this year by Republicans in the South are directed at shushing Black political voices, key to the Democratic chorus in congressional elections.

The only answer for the Democrats is to get Black voters to start singing about turning out in newly drawn districts. Voting in big numbers is the Democrats’ strategy for making an impact despite the redistricting.

Ocasio-Cortez is reaching out to Black voters after drawing big crowds last year with democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on their “Fighting Oligarchy Tour.”

At 84 years old, Sanders is not running for president. But his high energy movement of mostly left-wing, white Democrats is moving ahead. In Democratic primaries last week, candidates with his endorsement won a lot.

As Politico wrote last week, Sanders’ candidates “cleaned house on Tuesday, a coast-to-coast show of force headlined by a resounding win for his embattled Senate pick in Maine, Graham Platner…”

If those mostly white Democrats join with Blacks and Latinos at the polls in November it creates the best chance for a “Wave Election,” to transform Capitol Hill and a rebuke of President Trump.

Ocasio-Cortez looks to be intent on recreating the energy of the last Democrat to build a multi-racial coalition of Democratic voters.

Her words at Ebenezer echoed Barack Obama’s 2004 appeal to Democrats. He famously reached across racial lines by saying there is no “Black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America: There is a United States of America.”

Obama won Black voters overwhelmingly but also Hispanic voters by a two-to-one ratio in both 2008 and 2012.

But in 2024 Trump saw increased support from both Blacks and Latinos in a presidential race against a Black woman, former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Recent polling suggests that since Trump took office that support among Blacks and Latinos has faded if not disappeared.

While 59 percent of voters disapproved of Trump in a May New York Times-Siena poll, 83 percent of Blacks and 71 percent of Hispanics viewed him negatively.

Trump had about 40 percent support among Hispanics in March of 2025. It is now down to about 25 percent. A May UnidosUS poll found that among Latinos who voted for Trump in 2024 a quarter of them now say “if they could do it over again, they would not vote for him.”

The loss of Latino support for Republicans was clear in February when Republicans lost a state Senate race in Texas in a district Trump carried by 17 points. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) called on the Trump administration to “recalibrate,” a hardline deportation program that aimed at Latinos.

If Texas’ large Latino population — about a quarter of the state’s voters — turn out in the midterms it will be a big plus for the Democrat running for U.S. Senate, state Rep. James Talarico. A recent Texas A&M poll showed Talarico with a 12-point advantage among Latinos.

His opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxon (R), is known for supporting aggressive deportation tactics and for suing Latino voting rights groups. He accused one of “subverting the election process” by getting illegal immigrants to register to vote.

Ocasio-Cortez is already one of the nation’s most prominent Latino politicians. Polls show her in the top ranks of contenders for the Democrats’ 2028 presidential nomination.

Another Latino, Marco Rubio, is among the top potential contenders for the Republican nomination. The former U.S. senator from Florida now serves as secretary of State.

Wouldn’t it be something if the 2028 presidential contest came down to the two most visible post-boomer Latino politicians on the national stage?

While Ocasio-Cortez stands to inherit Sanders’ activist base, Trump is now frequently noting the enthusiastic response Rubio receives from Republican audiences.

If Rubio ultimately inherits the MAGA mantle, however, he will also inherit the controversies that come with it — particularly on immigration and the administration’s approach toward Hispanic communities.

Each represents a different vision of America’s future. First, each will have to raise their voices to get their voters to the polls.

Ocasio-Cortez is making a big noise now in all quarters of the Democrats’ coalition. The 2026 race is getting hot. The 2028 campaign has already begun. Democrats are listening to a promising Latin beat mixing with the Black gospel thanks to Ocasio-Cortez.

Juan Williams is senior political analyst for Fox News Channel and a prize-winning civil rights historian. He is the author of the new book “New Prize for These Eyes: The Rise of America’s Second Civil Rights Movement.”