Ocasio-Cortez deletes tweet mistakenly identifying top Democrat as GOP member

The freshman New York Democrat was responding to a tweet by the Republican Party of Kentucky that features a photo of Rep. John Yarmuth, a Kentucky Democrat who's the chairman of the House Budget Committee, standing next to a cardboard cutout of her.

Ocasio-Cortez, a prominent voice in the House freshman class who has more than 4 million Twitter followers, wrote in a now-deleted tweet, "GOP: Let's pose our older male members next to cardboard cutouts of young female legislators."

The text of the tweet by the Republican Party of Kentucky reads, "#ThrowbackThursday last month the socialists threatened the lone #Kentucky #Democrat in Congress if he didn't bend to their radical, extremist will: http://bit.ly/2vl9onV looks like @AOC and #socialism are calling the shots for @KyDems now!"

Ocasio-Cortez frequently captures national attention with her social media posts and has risen to become one of the most high-profile Democrats in the House.

Her office declined to comment to CNN for this story.

Yarmuth weighed in on Twitter and wrote, "I was a Republican 35 years ago, but I think I have become wiser as an older, white, male Democrat. I simply wanted everyone to know I welcome @RepAOC in Kentucky, regardless of what old white male Republicans think."

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty contributed to this report.

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