Major Upset as Democratic Socialist Blows Out Incumbent in Office Since '98
The Democratic establishment was slapped in the face by New York City voters Tuesday as a former Bernie Sanders organizer defeated a 10-term congressman in a congressional primary.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez handily defeated incumbent Joseph Crowley, whose name often appeared on lists as a possible successor to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Fox News reported. She received 57 percent of the vote against 42 percent for the 20-year veteran of Congress. The district is overwhelmingly Democratic, which means a primary win is tantamount to a win in November.
Ocasio-Cortz would be the second Hispanic member of Congress representing New York.
Crowley was an arch enemy of President Donald Trump, and has called Trump “behaviorally racist” and an embarrassing “degradation of the office of the presidency,” the New York Post reported.
Trump, chortled on Twitter over the outcome.
“Wow! Big Trump Hater Congressman Joe Crowley, who many expected was going to take Nancy Pelosi’s place, just LOST his primary election. In other words, he’s out! That is a big one that nobody saw happening. Perhaps he should have been nicer, and more respectful, to his President!” Trump tweeted.
Wow! Big Trump Hater Congressman Joe Crowley, who many expected was going to take Nancy Pelosi’s place, just LOST his primary election. In other words, he’s out! That is a big one that nobody saw happening. Perhaps he should have been nicer, and more respectful, to his President!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2018
Ocasio-Cortez, 28, of the Bronx, belongs to the Democratic Socialists of America.
Although the contest only covered one patch of ground stretching from the Bronx to Queens in New York City, the outcome had national reverberations.
The Democratic Party's age issues: Current House leadership, Pelosi, Hoyer, Clyburn, 78, 79, 77 years old respectively. Crowley, 56, would have been next generation leader. But he was defeated by 28 year old Ocasio-Cortez.
— Byron York (@ByronYork) June 27, 2018
“In the short term, Pelosi may have crossed another potential challenger off of her list, but the bigger picture can’t be good for the existing Democratic leadership structure,” Jim Newell wrote in an election analysis published on Slate.“Crowley, for all his accumulated power, just got taken out on the mantra of generational change. This presents an argument, for Pelosi’s detractors in the conference, that the rest of the leadership should follow suit.”
In an analysis for Politico, Steven Shepard said the outcome “rocked the political world” and “has left-wing, Bernie Sanders-aligned activists feeling emboldened.”
“We met a machine with a movement.” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez bested Crowley after campaigning on abolishing ICE and pushing the Medicare-for-all bill carried by Bernie Sanders https://t.co/aZ28kuBYL1
— POLITICO (@politico) June 27, 2018
Ocasio-Cortez sounded an aggressive note after her victory, The Washington Post reported.
“Every person out here this evening changed America tonight,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “This is not an end, this is the beginning.”
“This is the beginning because the message that we sent the world tonight is that it’s not OK to put donors before your community,” she said, according to CNN.
“You have given this country hope, you have given this country proof that when you knock on your neighbor’s door, when you come to them with love, when you let them know that no matter your stance, you are there for them — that we can make change,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez ran on a platform of universal health care, the abolition of the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a federal guarantee of jobs for everyone.
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