Given her most recent status as the Democratic presidential nominee in 2024, some might assume that former Vice President Kamala Harris is the default standard-bearer for her party and the best reflection of the values of the voters who make up the party's base.

That assumption would be incorrect, though, as new poll instead revealed that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tops the list of Democrats who "best reflect the core values" of the party, Breitbart reported.

The staunchly progressive leftist congesswoman beat out two dozen other prominent Democratic figures, including several other lawmakers in Washington D.C., some of whom are current or former party leaders, plus several state-level stars, and even a few former presidents and presidential candidates.

AOC best represents the Democratic Party

During the first week of March, pollsters working for CNN/SSRS surveyed just over 500 Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents and asked them to reveal in an open ended question who, in their view, "best reflects the core values of the Democratic Party?"

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez topped the list with 10%, followed by former VP Harris in second with 9% and, coming in third, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) with 8%, which is ironic in light of the fact that the "independent" Sanders isn't even an official member of the Democratic Party, though he does routinely vote alongside the party's caucus.

In fourth place on the list at 6% was House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and there was a tie for fifth at 4% between former President Barack Obama and Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX).

Which person best reflects the core values of the Democratic Party?
(Among Democrats/Dem indie leaners)

AOC 10%
Kamala Harris 9%
Bernie Sanders 8%
Hakeem Jeffries 6%
Barack Obama 4%
Jasmine Crockett 4%
Gavin Newsom 2%
Nancy Pelosi 2%
Elissa Slotkin 2%
Chuck Schumer 2%
Tim Walz… https://t.co/sxLj76ryYu

— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) March 16, 2025

Obama, Sanders, and Clinton used to lead the party

Those results are substantially different from the last time the question was asked by the same polling outfit in September 2017, before Ocasio-Cortez was first elected.

At that time, Obama topped the list at 18%, followed by Sanders in second with 14%. The rest of the top five was filled out by failed 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton at 10%, then-former Vice President Joe Biden with 7%, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) at 6%.

Notably, in the current poll, Clinton, Biden, and Warren all drew just 1% from the Democratic respondents when asked how best represented the Democratic Party.

More bad news for Democrats

That was far from the only bad news for Democrats in the new poll, as CNN reported that the Democratic Party's favorability has reached a new record low among the American people, per the survey of around 1,200 respondents that included a relatively fair mix of Democrats, Republicans, and independents.

Currently, only 29% of Americans view Democrats favorably, while 54% hold an unfavorable view of the party. That was the lowest ever favorable rating for Democrats, and a tie for the highest unfavorable rating, since CNN began tracking the question in 1992.

Nor is it just the predictably negative views of Republicans that have brought down favorability for Democrats, as only 19% of independents view Democrats favorably. On top of that, the outlet noted, only 63% of Democrats currently view their own party favorably, a figure that is down from 81% and 72% at the beginning and end of Biden's four-year term in office, respectively.

Further compounding matters for Democrats, especially if Rep. Ocasio-Cortez is to be the party's new standard-bearer, is the fact that 51% of Americans already view the party as "too extreme," up from 44% in 2022, and that 52% believe that the current Democratic leadership team has taken the party in the "wrong direction."