While speaking with Jonathan Karl on ABC’s This Week, the prominent socialist and potential 2028 presidential candidate was asked about Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong’s prior support for abolishing prisons and canceling Thanksgiving.“My understanding is that Francesca Hong has made clear her present stances to her electorate,” she said before confirming to Karl that Hong has “moved away from” these positions. “And I have a local city councilman who has this saying, ‘Woke 1 was crazy,’ and I think that what’s important is that we have to assess what a candidate is saying now.”
Ocasio-Cortez was referring to New York City Council Member Chi Osse, who represents parts of the Bedford-Stuyvesant and North Crown Heights neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Osse coined the phrase “Woke 1” in a May 2026 X post in which he responded to a user asking him about a comment he made in 2021 in which he said, “A cis white man should not be the next speaker of the Council.”“Woke 1 was crazyyy,” Osse said in response, presumably claiming such identity-based prejudice was a product of the intensely liberal political climate that emerged in the spring and summer of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests. The era’s racial strife unfolded alongside calls from Democrats for vaccine and mask mandates and sweeping shutdowns that disrupted local commerce and prolonged the closure of in-person classrooms.
