Why would a candidate who has more money than all her rivals put together be issuing urgent appeals across the country for funds to her campaign?

That's what we see now with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who's sending out pleas for money from her supporters across the country, to ward off as many as 13 primary challengers.

From CNBC, here's one:

WASHINGTON — Former CNBC anchor Michelle Caruso-Cabrera added her name Tuesday to the list of candidates hoping to deny Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a second term. Caruso-Cabrera, who worked for the financial news network for more than 20 years, is challenging Ocasio-Cortez in the Democratic primary June 23 for New York's 14th District. She filed her candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Monday, becoming Ocasio-Cortez's fifth Democratic challenger and 12th overall to file with the FEC. "I am the daughter and granddaughter of working-class Italian and Cuban immigrants," Caruso-Cabrera told CNBC in a statement. "I am so lucky to have had such a wonderful career, and I want everybody to have the opportunity that I've had. That's why I'm running."

It's weird stuff for a candidate who has so much money — $5 million–plus in the bank, against her next-challenger's $800,000 or so, and the collective group of challengers having just $2 million at most among themselves. According to a Politico report last month:

Ocasio-Cortez's campaign received more than 325,000 contributions from more than 185,000 individual donors in 2019. Her fundraising in the final quarter of the year is a dramatic increase compared to the total raised for her entire first election campaign in 2018, which came in at $2.1 million.

According to Fox News:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raised more than $1 million in January for her re-election campaign, making it her best fundraising month ever, according to her campaign. The progressive firebrand crushed her monthly goal after Fox News reported Jan. 10 Ocasio-Cortez refused to pay her $250,000 in "dues" to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, upsetting her liberal colleagues who bashed her for trying to undermine their party.

That cash she's raising is not local.

On the FEC reports, I see 12 challengers already up there. Caruso-Cabrera's entry, contrary to what CNBC reports, would make 13.

Obviously, those looking to unhorse the crazy Democratic socialist are multiplying.

Ocasio-Cortez claims it's all a matter of Democrats stacking things against her as they once did to her lodestar, Bernie Sanders:

Here's her appeal:

"The DCCC is actively putting their hand on the scales in competitive primaries. They're blacklisting consultants and vendors who work with progressive primary challengers, no matter who they're primarying," the note said. "That means the DCCC is siding with pro-life, pro-Trump, pro-corporate Democrats over human rights lawyers, middle school teachers, and other progressive community leaders who will fight for working-class folks."

Six of her challengers, counting Caruso-Cabrera, if her name goes up in the FEC records, are Democrats.

That's probably the most striking thing about this. Contrary to Ocasio-Cortez's claims about the Democratic Party establishment being against her, these Democrats challenging her are all pipsqueaks, clearly not funded by the kind of money the DNC could hand to them.

That points to something else that might be going on — that Ocasio-Cortez is not popular in her home district and in a wave year might just get thrown out.

Several reasons suggest that it will happen.

One, she got elected from a surprise primary on very, very low voter turnout, winning just 16,000 votes in the primary. Now that voters have gotten a whiff of her, many might be thinking about not staying home, particularly since it's a presidential year. That would explain why Ocasio-Cortez's latest message for raising support is all about raising turnout, a pretty big weakness of hers. She doesn't have it — the cash she raises comes from elsewhere, and elsewhere doesn't translate into votes. Now her voters have 13 other choices.

What's more, she's been a lousy congresswoman.

She's failed to show up for community meetings or meet with constituents as all congresspeople do as part of their job. (Instead, she spends time on Twitter.)

She's insulted veterans.

She's told the locals to quit growing cauliflower and instead grow tropical yuca in icy Bronx and Queens precincts.

She's used "family fun" events, such as a marathon race, as a disguised fundraiser.

She's put her boyfriend on the payroll, getting the corruption stuff done early.

She's failed to pay her $1,877 in taxes to the IRS from a failed business venture, at last count.

She also deadbeats the Democratic Party on her $250,000 in dues.

She primaries other Democrats with her money, so, not surprisingly, some may be primarying her back.

She hangs out with the Democratic Party's most revoltingly anti-Semitic members, such as Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, which is a bad idea in a district with many working-class Jewish voters.

She got Nancy Pelosi to sign off on that impeachment stunt in the House, taking time away from constructive projects. How'd that work out for Democrats?

Worst of all, she chases businesses out — Amazon a prominent one, but several others, too, denouncing corporate profits — and too bad about the lost jobs. That, community residents have told the press, is what really cheeses them off.

No wonder she's got primary challengers coming at her in double digits.

There's one last factor that might be operating here — the Democratic establishment has been murmuring that Bernie Sanders, the socialist presidential contender and Ocasio-Cortez mentor, is a loser who whatever his popularity among the Democratic base, can't win a general election, especially not against President Trump.

The same sense may be what's fueling the primary runs against Ocasio-Cortez, given that her far-far-far left socialist ideas don't represent what typically practical New Yorkers want. Ocasio-Cortez has turned the extremism factor up to 11, and she's a founding member of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's "squad." Now a paper tiger has been detected. It might just explain why she's got primary challengers coming out of the woodwork.

Photo illustration by Monica Showalter, from public domain source.