People Online Are Claiming that AOC Has a "New Accent," but What Do They Mean?

For as long as she has been in public life, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been one of the most divisive figures in politics. She remains an undeniable rising star in Democratic circles, but among those who don't like her politics, she has become a figure that inspires a great deal of heartburn.

AOC was one of the highlights of a star-studded night one at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, giving a speech in which she endorsed Kamala Harris and attacked Donald Trump. The speech itself suggested that she was a rising star in the party, but some who tuned in noticed something else about her speech.

Among some viewers who watched her speech, the focus was not on what she was saying but on how she was saying it. These people claim that AOC debuted a "new accent" during the speech, specifically when she went after Donald Trump.

"I, for one, am tired of hearing about how a two-bit union buster thinks of himself as more of a patriot than the woman who fights every single day to lift working people from under the boots of greed, trampling on our way of life," she said in the speech.

Many noticed the phrase "on our way of life," in particular seemed to be outside of her normal cadence, suggesting that she had picked a "new accent."

"AOC speech was cringe. The fake accent was way too much for me. Back snapped. I called it. DNC is cringe as all get out," one person wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

"What accent is AOC using here?" another added.

While her voice does sound slightly different, the reason for that likely has more to do with the fact that she was delivering a sweeping rhetorical speech, and was giving it the extra zest and verve that the moment demands. She was not debuting some sort of "new accent," but changing the way her voice sounds slightly to meet a moment in which she wanted to excite the people in her party, which is exactly what she did.

AOC has been accused of using different accents in the past, but it's hard to disentangle that claim from the notion of code-switching, which is remarkably common in communities of color like the one AOC grew up in.

AOC is a political force to be reckoned with, and her speech was proof that she might have a bright future in politics in the decades to come.

The notion that she puts on different accent is belied by her own history as a public speaker, and it's also tied in to other complaints about her potency as a political force. AOC's not a perfect person or politician, because who is, but those who don't like her should focus on the substantive reasons for their disagreements, not on the suggestion that she puts on fake accents.