Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Defeats Joe Crowley in NY Primary
Ocasio-Cortez, who is 28, ran on a progressive platform.
28-year-old community organizer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who's a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, pulled off a stunning victory over Rep. Joe Crowley, who is the fourth-most powerful Democrat in the House, on Tuesday night, CNNreports.
Crowley received just 42 percent of the vote while Ocasio-Cortez garnered 58 percent, the New York Timesreports.
Ocasio-Cortez, who's a first-time candidate, ran in New York’s 14th District (eastern Bronx and part of north-central Queens) on a leftist platform that called for housing as a human right, fighting climate change, criminal justice reform, immigration justice, abolishing ICE, a federal jobs guarantee, and Medicare-for-all.
Ocasio-Cortez’s website describes her as being “an educator, organizer, and working-class New Yorker who has championed the needs of children, families, and working New Yorkers both on the streets and with policymakers.” It continues, “After growing up experiencing the reality of New York’s rising income inequality, Ocasio-Cortez dedicated her life to education organizing, economic study, and activism, eventually mounting a 100% volunteer, no-corporate PAC effort to collect thousands of signatures and trigger the first NY-14 primary election in fourteen years.”
Following harrowing reports of children being abducted by immigration officers, Ocasio-Cortez traveled to Texas to join protests outside of an ICE detention center.
