In a major primary upset, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old Socialist Latina from the Bronx, ousted Representative Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) in New York’s 14th congressional district last night (June 26).
Representative Crowley had not faced a primary opponent in 14 years, serving a district that includes Queens and the Bronx, is about half Latinx and is primarily populated by working-class people. He was viewed as a potential succesor to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), The New York Times reports.
Ocasio-Cortez secured her nomination with about $300,000 she raised from small-dollar donors, compared to Crowley’s $3 million.
"Women like me aren’t supposed to run for office," Ocasio-Cortez, who was born and raised in the Bronx, said in a viral campaign ad released last month. Now, the Puertoriqueña may be on track to represent her native district, which has a roughly 50 percent immigrant population, according to NPR.
Ocasio-Cortez—a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and a former organizer for Senator Bernie Sanders‘ (D-Vt.) presidential campaign—ran on a leftist progressive platform, calling for Medicare for all, tuition-free public college, a federal jobs gurantee and the abolishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I’m an organizer in this community, and I knew living here and being here and seeing and organizing with families here, that it was possible,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Times at her victory party. "I knew that it was long odds, and I knew that it was uphill, but I always knew it was possible.”
If she wins against Republican Anthony Pappas in the November general election, she will be the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.
Watch Ocasio-Cortez react to her victory, below.
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This is the moment Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old Latina running her first campaign, discovered she had ousted 10-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley in New York’s 14th congressional district https://t.co/Q7namRbcEk pic.twitter.com/D4lzJZo1z3
rnt— CNN (@CNN) June 27, 2018
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