Is AOC Pulling a Bait-and-Switch Over Where Donations Meant to Provide Thanksgiving Turkeys Are Going?

By Becca Lower | 8:22 PM on November 22, 2025

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It could be just the latest example of a Socialist shake-down in the Big Apple.

Readers might recall when NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani told the people who supported him and his "everything for free" agenda, just one day after his election victory, that he needed "support" in the form of donations to make what he promised to actually happen. Well, now there's another Socialist scam afoot, and sickeningly, it involves free turkeys for people who might otherwise go hungry this Thanksgiving, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14).

As exclusively reported by The NYPost, AOC recently sent out an email to supporters, for what appeared to be her annual appeal to help charity organizations provide dinner for families in need.

AOC email seeks donations for turkey giveaway — but money goes straight to her campaign coffers https://t.co/GzpoYWEqch pic.twitter.com/UfhmscC8HI
— New York Post (@nypost) November 22, 2025

The report shared an excerpt from the letter, which read:

“Thanksgiving is two weeks away...Will you chip in $5 or anything you can today to help us bring the joy of the holiday season into homes around NYC this year?”

As recently as 2021, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez has sent out emails to New Yorkers, urging them to give generously to community organizations to help buy turkey dinners; that year, it was reported that she "raised $33,589.64 for three local charities." Since 2019, indeed, she has helped provide hundred of turkey, The NYPost wrote.

Here's the problem: the generous people hoping to help someone's Thanksgiving in 2025 got something more akin to a Halloween trick, according to The NY Post, as..."clicking on the contribution link sends people directly to a campaign fundraising page operated by ActBlue."

And a disclosure on the screen where you enter a donation amount tells people it's “paid for by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress.”

As mentioned above, in previous years, the Empire state congresswoman sent people to charity websites to directly support those less fortunate. Understandably, most people will likely think the same thing is happening this year in Ocasio-Cortez world.

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Any moral human being can see what I see; this bait-and-switch by Sandy is wrong morally. Since I don't play a lawyer in real life, I can't say whether it's on the up-and-up or an attempt at illegal campaign funding. Instead of clicking on any email appeal from AOC, people can go to Salvation Army's Operation Thanksgiving page to support people. Anyway, I sincerely hope someone at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) will look into what's happening with those "turkey" emails with a fine-toothed comb ASAP.

[Editor's Note: this article was edited for clarity post-publication.]

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