In a stunning primary upset, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a young socialist activist, woman of color and political newcomer — has unseated leading House Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley in New York’s deep-blue 14th Congressional District.
Ocasio-Cortez, 28, a former organizer for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign and a onetime staffer for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, ran on an unalloyed leftist progressive platform, calling for a “political revolution” that includes Medicare and higher education for all, gun control measures, an end to private prisons and the abolition of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
The district Ocasio-Cortez hopes to represent is in the Bronx and Queens; roughly 50 percent of the people there are immigrants — and she says they’ve been yearning for a representative who speaks to them, and speaks for their needs.
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