Republican stalwarts are striking at the heart of the socialist movement in New York City — the Queens neighborhoods represented by US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Councilwoman Tiffany Caban.

“We’re going into the belly of the beast of the Democratic Socialists of America in New York City,” said Curtis Sliwa, the 2021 GOP mayoral candidate behind the creation of the Ronald Reagan Republican Club in Astoria.

“We’re going to take on AOC and Caban,” added Sliwa, referring to the prominent DSA members.

Sliwa vowed Republicans will run a candidate against Caban this year and AOC next year, with the goal of forming an alliance with moderate Democrats who believe the pols are out of touch on issues such as crime and taxes.

“This is Concord and Lexington,” said Sliwa, the Guardian Angels founder, referring to the first two battles of the American Revolution. “We’re talking to regular people in Astoria. They don’t support defunding the police and defunding the jails.”  

A generation ago, Astoria and Long Island City were populated by Greek and Italian immigrant homeowners and represented on the council by moderate-to-conservative Democrats Peter Vallone Sr. and Jr.

Since the younger Vallone left office in 2013, the area’s demographics have shifted as younger, college-educated and tech-savvy residents with left-leaning views have moved into the sleek new condos that have sprung up across the area.

The political earthquake struck Queens in 2018, when Ocasio-Cortez defeated Rep. Joe Crowley, the then-Queens Democratic leader, in the House primary. The DSA had arrived.

The following year, a leftist coalition that included Ocasio-Cortez and state Sen. Michael Gianaris forced Amazon to withdraw its plan to build a massive new East Coast headquarters in Long Island City.

Other democratic socialists — including Caban and Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani — soon took their places in City Hall and Albany.

One of the leaders of the new GOP club in Astoria, Marie Lynch, called Caban “poison” and Ocasio-Cortez, “clueless.”

“We have to be the alternative to all the craziness. Let the police do their jobs. Don’t defund the police,” she said.

Republicans will see reason to believe after winning City Council and Assembly seats in northeastern Queens and southern Brooklyn last year, amid voter disgust about crime and bail reform.

But at least one political expert is skeptical that the GOP can make inroads in the heart of progressive Gotham.

“Astoria and Western Queens is ground zero for the DSA and the AOC crowd. They keep winning races and defeating centrists,” said political consultant Hank Sheinkopf. “It’s hard to see Republicans winning there.

“These new residents have new ideas — being Republican isn’t one of them.”