AOC expresses concern about her party's state after Democrats pass trans athlete ban bill: "We're not doing well."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., faced a tougher challenge on Tuesday when her party voted for a bill she had criticized, resulting in widespread mockery.

Despite Ocasio-Cortez's viral rant against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, Democratic allies Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, both of Texas, voted in favor of the bill that seeks to prevent federally funded educational institutions from allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls and women's sports.

The idea that Democratic congressmen are voting for a Republican-backed bill before President-elect Trump returns to office implies that the Democratic Party is in a weak state, according to Ocasio-Cortez.

"We cannot afford to be cautious about this," Ocasio-Cortez stated in an interview with The Independent on Tuesday. "These are only the initial stages, and Trump has not yet been inaugurated. If a small sports bill is enough to cause Democrats to defect, we are in a dire situation."

Ocasio-Cortez advised Democrats not to be "ninnies" while delivering a widely-mocked tirade that contained multiple unsubstantiated claims and unfinished sentences. Her rant prompted multiple viral social media responses that labeled her "the dumbest person in congress."

In 2025, Ocasio-Cortez's poor start is marked by the loss of her coalition members, including Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush, despite her re-election to her House seat in New York.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., was chosen as the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, while Ocasio-Cortez did not get the position.

Ocasio-Cortez frequently faced viral social media mockery for her unwavering stance on transgender inclusion in women's and girls sports.

In November, Ocasio-Cortez reposted a video of Green Party vice presidential candidate Butch Ware criticizing transgender inclusion in women's sports, accompanied by a caption that read, "This ticket is predatory and people deserve better." The post sparked significant controversy on social media.

Riley Gaines, a conservative influencer and former NCAA swimmer, wrote on X that AOC's statement that not wanting men competing in women's sports is predatory behavior is actually predatory. Gaines also pointed out that sexualizing children and normalizing pedophilia is what is truly predatory.

Weeks after the election, the mockery of Ocasio-Cortez increased when X users noticed she no longer included her pronouns "she/her" in her bio.

Despite the vulnerability of the issue of transgender inclusion in women's sports for Democrats in November's election, Ocasio-Cortez and many other prominent Democrats remain steadfast in their support for it.

Although many Democrats who opposed the bill on Tuesday did not base their arguments on the principle that transgender athletes should be permitted in women's and girls' sports, they contended that the measures aimed at excluding transgender individuals would subject girls to genital examinations and sexual predators, despite the bill's lack of language suggesting such examinations for girls in sports.

On the House of Representatives floor, Ocasio-Cortez made a shout-out to transgender athletes while also including an unsubstantiated claim in her rant on Tuesday.

Ocasio-Cortez has previously supported the Equality Act, which proposed in 2019 and had revisions that would require public schools to allow biologically male athletes who identify as transgender on girls sports teams. In March 2023, Democrats, including Ocasio-Cortez, introduced a resolution recognizing the responsibility of the Federal Government to establish and implement a Transgender Bill of Rights.

Unlike Ocasio-Cortez, other Democratic House representatives have publicly withdrawn their support for transgender inclusion, including Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass.; Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas; and Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y. Despite this, each of those Democrats voted against the bill Tuesday.

A national exit poll by the Concerned Women for America legislative action committee revealed that 70% of moderate voters consider "Donald Trump's opposition to transgender boys and men playing girls' and women's sports and using girls' and women's bathrooms" to be important to them. Additionally, 6% of voters said it was the most important issue, while 44% considered it "very important."

In June, a survey by NORC at the University of Chicago asked respondents whether transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in sports leagues that match their preferred gender identity rather than their biological sex.

In the survey, 65% of respondents said that adult transgender female athletes should never or rarely be allowed to compete on women's sports teams. Out of those surveyed, 69% opposed the idea of transgender female athletes competing on women's sports teams.

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