Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – The Details

USA World News by Yogesh on June 27, 2018 add comment 851 views

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – The Details

A day before Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 28, clinched her remarkable Democratic primary victory in New York’s 14th Congressional District, she took a moment to note how she was being described in the political press.
“A Girl Has No Name: Headlines from the Political Patriarchy,” she tweeted. In the tabloids and on some local television stations, she was, over and again, simply Rep. Joe Crowley’s “primary opponent.”

A Girl Has No Name: Headlines from the Political Patriarchy pic.twitter.com/xohAiHSk3b
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) June 26, 2018

A little more than 24 hours later, that’s beginning to change. Ocasio-Cortez, fresh off a thorough defeat of the 10-term incumbent, the No. 4 House Democrat, is quickly becoming a household name.
Her win on Tuesday caps off a remarkable ascent – which will likely make her the youngest person in Congress come 2019. Should she defeat her Republican opponent, she will arrive in Washington with a clear progressive agenda — to push for “Medicare for all,” the abolition of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and legislation to drag big money out of politics.

Ocasio-Cortez’s own story begins in the Bronx, the same borough that, along with parts of Queens, delivered for her on primary day. She was born and raised there, the daughter of working class Puerto Rican parents — her father born in the South Bronx (he died in 2008, while she was in college); her mother on the island — she went on to study at Boston University and work in the the office of liberal lion Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.
When she returned home, Ocasio-Cortez worked as a community organizer and, eventually, with economic stresses rooted in the recession and the loss of her father taking hold, began low-wage, long-hour work at restaurants to help support her family.
During the 2016 presidential season, she worked as an organizer for Sen. Bernie Sanders, who ran in the Democratic primary. In 2017, Ocasio-Cortez launched her campaign to unseat Crowley, the powerful Democrat who chairs the party in Queens County.
Her candidacy began to gain traction — and Crowley, who hadn’t been challenged in more than a decade, started to show his weakness — earlier this year. Crowley drew the consternation of The New York Times editorial board for failing to show up to a debate against his opponent, citing scheduling conflicts.

It's time for a New York that works for all of us.
On June 26th, we can make it happen – but only if we have the #CourageToChange.
It's time to get to work. Please retweet this video and sign up to knock doors + more at https://t.co/kacKFI9RtI to bring our movement to Congress. pic.twitter.com/aqKMjovEjZ
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) May 30, 2018

Though he outraised Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, by a jarring 10-to-1 margin, her bid was super-charged with the release of an online ad late last month produced by a pair of fellow DSA members.
“Women like me aren’t supposed to run for office,” Ocasio-Cortez says at the outset of the two-minute viral ad.
Anyone familiar with New York’s machine politics would have been hard-pressed to dismiss the line as common campaign rhetoric. After Tuesday night, it’ll be just as difficult to ignore Ocasio-Cortez.

4 major lessons from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s titanic upset in New York

At first glance, the upset victory scored by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over 10-term Rep. Joe Crowley in New York’s 14th District Democratic primary is no big deal for Democrats’ chances of flipping the House in November. After all, the Bronx and Queens seat is overwhelmingly Democratic and has zero effect on Democrats’ fight for the majority.

But that first glance is very, very deceiving. This isn’t just about a single House race. This is about the struggle for the future of the Democratic Party — both in New York and nationally. This is about the kind of candidate Democratic voters want. This is about the kind of leaders the Democratic Party will have after 2018.

In short: Ocasio-Cortez’s victory is about a whole hell of a lot more than just a single strongly Democratic House seat. Below, four major lessons Democrats should take from her win — the primary upset of the 2018 cycle to date.

1. The Democratic base is sick of the establishment

Donald Trump’s hostile takeover of the Republican Party in 2016 — and the establishment’s acquiescence to him in 2017 and 2018 — put a massive spotlight on the divide between the GOP party leadership and the Republican base.

Meanwhile, overlooked amid the Trump furor, Democrats have been in the early stages of a civil war of their own — between pragmatic establishment types and liberals infuriated with the Trump presidency.

That Crowley, the heir apparent to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, of California, could lose a primary to a 28-year-old, politically unknown and woefully underfunded Democratic Socialist speaks volumes about where the energy in the party is right now.

All you need to do is watch the two-minute bio video Ocasio-Cortez put out to understand a) where the party is right now and b) how terrifying that should be to the party establishment.

2. Politics punishes people who get ahead of themselves

In mid-April, Politico ran a story on Crowley with this headline “Queens party boss angles to succeed Pelosi as speaker.” The piece detailed how Crowley was laying the groundwork to make a run at the three septuagenarians leading his party in the House. (More on that below.) In politics, you take your eye of the ball for even a minute and you can lose.

Witness Roy Barnes’ loss in the Georgia governor’s race in 1998 as he prepped for a 2000 presidential bid. Or George Allen’s stunning defeat in his 2006 Senate re-election race as he geared up for a 2008 presidential candidacy. Or Eric Cantor’s 2014 primary loss as he readied himself to be speaker of the House.

Crowley now joins that ignominious list.

3. House Democrats need some younger blood

I’ve written for years about the fact that the three top Democrats in the House are all over 70: Pelosi (78), Steny Hoyer (79) and Jim Clyburn (77). Crowley was seen as the spring chicken of the group at 56.

But, with him now gone — and a clear message sent that the party is sick of the establishment — it’s harder and harder to see how Pelosi doesn’t face a real challenge for the top job (either minority leader or speaker) in 2019. She was already in jeopardy of not winning the simple majority vote before this political earthquake happened in New York on Tuesday night. Now the desire for new faces and people who represent the younger generation of Democrats will be felt even more strongly.

And that’s bad news not just for Pelosi, but for Hoyer and Clyburn as well.

(Worth noting: With Crowley’s loss, the next generation — below Pelosi — of future Democratic leaders has been totally obliterated. Xavier Becerra left Congress to be the California Attorney General. Steve Israel of New York retired. Maryland’s Chris Van Hollen ran and won a Senate race. Debbie Wasserman Schultz crashed and burned as the head of the Democratic National Committee. And now, Crowley. There’s no one left. It’s a wasteland.)

4. Women rule

Ocasio-Cortez’s victory is only the latest example of a very clear trend in Democratic primaries in 2018: When women run, they win.

No one has cataloged the success of female Democratic candidates in this election cycle better than The Cook Political Report’s House Editor David Wasserman. Following the June 12 primaries, Wasserman tweeted two amazing facts.

First, this: “Remarkable: after tonight, Dems have nominated women in 73/150 (49%) of ’18 House races (excluding Dem incumbents). On GOP side, just 18/112 (16%).”

https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1006738209282371584

Then, this: “UPDATE: so far in 2018 Dem House primaries featuring at least one woman, one man & no incumbent, women have been the top vote-getters in 66/93 cases (71%). On GOP side, just 9/26 (35%). Never seen anything like it.”

https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1006741573672034306

While Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t add to those stats — she beat an incumbent — she clearly represents the growing power of female candidates in Democratic primaries.

If you are, say, Elizabeth Warren or Kirsten Gillibrand or Kamala Harris — all of whom are looking at the 2020 Democratic presidential race — the victory of Ocasio-Cortez (and all of the rest of these Democratic women over the course of the year) have to buoy your hopes.

News Source: edition.cnn.com,