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The other OC – 28-year-old new Congressional nominee Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – hangs out with her working class supporters.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, spiritual granddaughter-of-color of Bernie Sanders’s, made history is Tuesday’s primaries by defeating Rep. Joe Crowley, a decent liberal in leadership who probably should not have been representing such a strongly minority-majority district in the first place.
Ocasio-Cortez, who I like to think of as “the other OC,” won for many reasons ranging from her own good qualities to the qualities of the district to the qualities of the times, but let’s not forget one of the major reason reasons she won:
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or DCCC, flat out did not see her victory coming.
Had DCCC taken her as seriously as it should have, it would have produced a dossier against her — as it did in the case of other Berniecrats (such as CA-39’s Andy Thorburn) — slamming her personal history and her policy positions. After all, DCCC envisions its job as (1) to protect incumbents like Coakley and (2) to ensure that the Democratic party gives as little hope as possible to its insurgent wing.
Now we see what happens when they get caught napping: a wildly energized local party, a suddenly inspired national leftist reform wing, and (the only upside they may see) someone they can blame for their own losses this year. (After all, she calls herself a “Democratic Socialist,” which centrist Democrats have worked hard, hand in glove with Republicans, to lead the public to equate with Stalin rather then Sweden.)
I wonder how many DCCC employees are getting sacked over the failure to produce a dossier on her! I wonder if they will ever make this sort of mistake again. One can only HOPE.
*This girl is fabulous and real poster girl for Dem’s success in November. Dem candidates would be smart to follow her formula for success.
I love Esquire’s treatment of Hannity’s treatment of Ocasio-Cortez’s platform:
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a21985697/sean-hannity-democratic-platform-ocasio-cortez/
She’s 28, passionate, articulate, beautiful, and Pueto Rican – while Crowley had his eyes elsewhere and got grilled by NYT. Perhaps a few thousand Bronx/Queens voters actually met her, knew her policies, or read that NYT story. Now millions know about her. What that actually means in November remains to be determined…
Let us pray! She is very impressive!
Really worth reading — especially to watch her ad.
By the way, for those wondering why “Ocasio” is so much bigger in her logo than “Cortez,” aside from the obvious (first surname) it’s probably because it evokes the Spanish word “ocasión” — “time” — heard around these parts in, for example, Dr. José Moreno’s slogan “It’s Time, Anaheim.” Nice touch!
I stand corrected, and Ocasio-Cortez speaks better than I expected:
“Here’s my 1st pair of campaign shoes. I knocked doors until rainwater came through my soles.
Respect the hustle. We won bc we out-worked the competition. Period.”
Smartest messaging I’ve seen by far: encourage activism, energy, hustle. There are millions of millennials who may need to see evidence that this can actually work before they’ll put in the work that makes it work.
If she’s consistently leading with messages like that, she’ll build support for hundreds of other races that need it too. Who knows how far she’ll walk?
She’s really fucking smart and articulate and funny. And it’s probably racist or sexist or ageist or classist for us to be surprised at that.
‘Surprised’ can be, “I never expected that of her, look where she’s coming from…” – and can also be – “wow, even better than I’d expected…”
And if anyone calls you racist or sexist or ageist or classist for that, they could be unpleasantly surprised by my response. (I, on the other hand, am irredeemable: I also pointed out she’s beautiful…but seriously, why would Crowley ever want to take a podium against her? He looks like a bit like Limbaugh’s brother…she most certainly does not…poor guy, I’m sure he’ll turn out just fine.)
This is the district where I grew up. It has always been Democrat, except for a few years in the early 1920s. The defeat of Crowley and victory of Ocasio-Cortez reflects the changing demographics of the area. When I was growing up, the area was primarily Irish-American. The political leaders were also Irish-American (James J. Delaney, Thomas J. Manton, Joseph Crowley).
The Catholic Church played a significant role in local community life. As many kids in the neighborhood attended Catholic schools as attended public schools. Although it was an overwhelmingly Democratic district, it was also socially conservative. Joseph Crowley represented these old demographics.
The area is now far more diverse. Lots of immigrants from Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean and Central America. Lots of millennials wanting close access to Manhattan with a lower housing cost. It’s not only a different time, it’s a different place. Similar demographic changes from a conservative white majority to great diversity are taking place in Orange County, so Ocasio-Cortez’s victory has special relevance here.
Thanks for the native perspective. I especially agree with your concluding thoughts.
I doubt that OC overall would elect an OC yet, but we’re moving in that direction. Lou Correa should pay attention to this. Tom Daly won’t, because he has all the oil and tobacco money he needs to stay in place, but given the demographics in AD-69 someday that will be overcome.