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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had harsh words for The Lincoln
Project on Friday, accusing the group of being in "scam
territory" over its promise to persuade "never-Trump"
Republicans to vote for President-elect Joe Biden.

In a Twitter thread, Ocasio-Cortez argued that The Lincoln
Project, which raised $67.4 million according to Federal
Election Commission data, diverted resources from organizers and
groups who were more effective in driving votes in for Biden.

"It's not too late for them to do the right thing. Lincoln
Project should take the L and publicly pledge to give a lot of
their fundraising to the people who actually made a big
difference," Ocasio-Cortez said.

Ocasio-Cortez and The Lincoln Project did not respond to
requests for comment on this story.

The Lincoln Project, which was started in late 2019 by high-
profile former GOP operatives including Rick Wilson and
Kellyanne Conway's husband George Conway, gained a reputation —
and some notoriety — this year for its memes and ads bashing
President Donald Trump, including billboards in New York City
mocking Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.

The group's significant war chest went toward ads in a variety
of states, including deep-blue ones like New York as well as
battleground states like Pennsylvania and more conservative ones
like South Carolina.

But following an unexpectedly strong showing from Republicans in
House of Representatives races, Ocasio-Cortez — who coasted to
reelection along with fellow progressive Democrats Rep. Ilhan
Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib — has clashed with centrist
Democrats over the future direction of the party.

During a contentious call Thursday, first reported by The
Washington Post, Ocasio-Cortez defended Democrats' ability to
win swing seats while running on progressive policies and blamed
this year's electoral failures in part on lackluster digital
campaigns, a theme she echoed in her critique of The Lincoln
Project on Friday.

"The kind of videos they made are pretty well shown to not be
persuasive for a Never Trump message. Explicitly insulting anti-
Trump content isn't what gets people to move," she said, adding
that those who disagreed needed to back up their claims with
independent data, and that so far, "we just haven't seen any."


Several co-founders of The Lincoln Project defended the group's
work.

"AOC is mad at us. QANON Republicans are really mad at us.
@realDonaldTrump is really, really mad at us. Must be doing
something right," former New Hampshire GOP chairwoman Jennifer
Horn tweeted Friday, suggesting that centrist voters — and The
Lincoln Party's efforts to appeal to them — were a significant
force in Biden's victory.

And in a tweet asking if Steve Schmidt of The Lincoln Project
would support the two Democrats running for Senate in Georgia,
who are both headed to January runoff elections, Schmidt
replied, "yes."

Early national exit polls from CNN, which are only preliminary
looks at who voted for each presidential candidate or party,
show that Biden gained ground with older voters, white voters,
men, and some parts of Trump's base, but underperformed with
voters of color.

https://www.businessinsider.com/aoc-lincoln-project-scam- territory-millions-raised-republican-voters-2020-11

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