Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) found herself in the middle of a heated online exchange after criticizing Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s latest run for the White House. AOC’s remarks quickly drew a sharp response from Stein, who didn’t hold back in defending her party and political motives.

In a social media post, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that third-party candidates, like Stein, were not genuine contenders and accused them of being “predatory” by only appearing during election cycles. “You’re just showing up once every four years to do that? You’re not serious. You’re not authentic. To me, it does not read as authentic. It reads as predatory,” AOC said.

Stein, who ran for president in 2016 as the Green Party’s candidate, responded in a video posted on X, formerly Twitter. In her response, Stein dismissed AOC’s claims and took the opportunity to call out what she described as the Democratic Party’s anti-democratic practices. The video quickly garnered attention, racking up millions of views.

Stein argued that AOC’s accusations were part of a broader strategy by Democrats to discredit third-party candidates. She claimed that her campaign was not only serious but also posed a genuine threat to establishment politics. “I just wanted to thank AOC Pelosi so very much for her very authentic concern about growing green power. Clearly, AOC is the attack dog du jour, and the Democrats are running scared, and they should be, because who wants to support a genocide?”

“AOC, who’s supposed to be in leadership of the Democratic Party, it’s amazing if she doesn’t know about the anti-democratic tactics and strategies that the Democratic Party uses to crush and silence political opposition. They’ve been hiring an army of lawyers to throw competitors like me off the ballot. They’ve been hiring infiltrators and saboteurs and publicly posting job advertisements for those positions.” Stein asked, “How is that not fraud and election interference?”

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It’s tough for independent and third-party candidates to appear on ballots across many states due to efforts by the Democratic party to limit competition, fearing vote siphoning in tight races. Independent and third-party candidates could be game-changers in the tightly contested race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, where every vote is expected to count.

Politico’s ballot tracker shows that Stein has managed to secure ballot access in 30 states, including key battlegrounds like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

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