Asked to comment on the Republican reaction to this week’s Democratic win in Virginia enabling congressional redistricting, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) responded with a “wah wah wah” interjection before claiming it is a “new day” in the Democratic Party.
Addressing Republican complaints about the Virginia result, which included President Trump’s frequent accusation of election “fraud” when his side loses, Ocasio-Cortez said that what Republicans are really “mad about” in the Virginia result is that they “have been accustomed to a Democratic Party that rolls over and won’t fight.” Republicans now face a situation where, the Congresswoman said, that is no longer the case.
Reporter: What do you make of Republicans saying that Virginia—
AOC: Wah wah wah.
Republicans have fought for partisan gerrymanders across the United States of America. And these are the rules that they have set.pic.twitter.com/X0IKXke3Yq
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 22, 2026
Ocasio-Cortez asserted that Democrats would be pleased to end gerrymandering nationwide, but that Republicans will not agree to a moratorium. She cited North Carolina and Texas as states that had been gerrymandered by the GOP to skew red. In Texas, unlike in Virginia and California, the redistricting measure was effected without a popular vote.
[NOTE: At Fox News, Nikki Beaver, National Political Director at the National Federation of Republican Women, makes a GOP argument — claiming systemic “corruption” — against the Virginia result.
Beaver wrote: “The RNC, the NRCC and Congressmen Ben Cline and Morgan Griffith filed suit because the process was corrupt from the start, not because Republicans are afraid of competition. We are not afraid of competition. We are afraid of a system where constitutional guardrails are demolished whenever the other side decides they’re inconvenient. Today it’s Virginia. Tomorrow it’s your state.”]
They spent $64 MILLION in dark money to win by just 3 points.
Democrats called it a “fair” redistricting, but a Virginia judge called it a “blatant abuse of power.” TWICE.
The fight isn’t over. The Virginia Supreme Court still has the final word.
Read NFRW Political &…
— NFRW (@NFRW) April 22, 2026
Ocasio-Cortez’s response, and her call for Democrats to improve their battle readiness, echoed other Democrats who argue that the two major political parties in Washington play by different rules using different weapons.
Before the Virginia vote, Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which spent more than $12 million backing the redistricting referendum, warned fellow Democrats: “We cannot bring a stick to a knife fight.”
That same sentiment fuels Ocasio-Cortez’s declaration that Republicans will now face a less timid Democratic Party less likely to “roll over.”
But the dynamic Ocasio-Cortez’s says needs changing isn’t solely attributable to a difference in the attitudes and accountability of lawmakers — it is also highly dependent on the current power balance in a system where Republicans hold majorities in all three branches of government.