Activist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated powerful House Democrat Joe Crowley in a stunning primary election upset Tuesday, a result that could shake the foundations of the established party.
The 28-year-old's decisive victory over the fourth-ranking House Democrat in New York's 14th District holds potentially huge implications for the future of the party. Crowley, who has served in Congress for nearly two decades, had possible ambitions to challenge Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi for House speaker if Democrats were to take a House majority in November's midterm elections.
“We beat a machine with a movement, and that is what we have done today,” Ocasio-Cortez told supporters Tuesday night. “Working-class Americans want a clear champion and there is nothing radical about moral clarity in 2018.”
In another race seen as defining the Democratic Party's path in 2018, primary voters emphatically backed a young woman who cast herself as a progressive on economic and social issues. Ocasio-Cortez, a community organizer and education advocate, is endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America and ran to Crowley's left.
She ran without corporate donors. Crowley's campaign spent spent about 16 times more than his challenger's did. The incumbent had about 10 times more money on hand than Ocasio-Cortez did as of early June.
Ocasio-Cortez promoted proposals such as Medicare for all, a jobs guarantee and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Ocasio-Cortez argued that Crowley — a 56-year-old white man — could not properly connect with the diverse district.
She has earned support from the wing of the political left embodied by Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont. In a tweeted statement, the senator congratulated Ocasio-Cortez on an "extraordinary upset victory."
"She took on the entire local Democratic establishment in her district and won a very strong victory. She demonstrated once again what progressive grassroots politics can do," he said.
The 14th District sits mostly in Queens and part of the Bronx, where Ocasio-Cortez was born. Crowley heads the Queens County Democratic Party. He had not faced a primary challenger in 14 years.
"I want to congratulate Ms. Ocasio-Cortez on her victory tonight. I look forward to supporting her and all Democrats this November," Crowley said in a statement Tuesday night. "The Trump administration is a threat to everything we stand for her in Queens and the Bronx, and if we don't win back the House this November, we will lose the nation we love."
Ocasio-Cortez is expected to win the blue district easily in November. She will face Republican Anthony Pappas, who ran unopposed Tuesday.
Crowley's loss raises new questions about who could challenge Pelosi for leadership following November's midterms. He is the only one of the top four House Democrats younger than 77-years-old.
In a statement, Pelosi congratulated Ocasio-Cortez on her victory. The California Democrat said Crowley brought "principled, unifying and forward-looking leadership to the historic challenges of the Trump administration."
President Donald Trump, for his part, cheered Crowley's loss. In a tweet Tuesday night, he called Crowley a "Big Trump Hater" and suggested the representative would have done better if he had supported the president more often.
"Perhaps he should have been nicer, and more respectful, to his President!" Trump wrote.
Of course, nothing at all indicates Crowley lost the primary in a deep blue district because he criticized Trump. Ocasio-Cortez's proposals to abolish ICE and ensure Medicare for all certainly do not align with the president, who has cracked down on illegal border crossings and railed against too much federal government involvement in health care.
The president also claimed that "the Democrats are in Turmoil!"
Rep. Joe Crowley, one of the top Democrats in the House of Representatives, lost his New York primary in a shocking upset on Tuesday night to community organizer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Crowley, having fundraised nearly $3 million for the race in New York’s 14th District, fell easily to a first-time candidate with a viral introduction video, a Democratic Socialists of America membership card, and a proudly leftist agenda. She ran on Medicare-for-all, a federal jobs guarantee, and getting tough on Wall Street. The race was called just before 10 pm for Ocasio-Cortez.
For those who closely watch elections, this is the biggest primary upset since then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor was defeated by David Brat in 2014. Brat ran on a campaign of depicting Cantor as a creature of Washington rather than a true representative of the district.
Likewise, Crowley, who has been in Congress since 1999, is the No. 4 Democrat in the House and was widely viewed as an eventual successor to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Though he was a stalwart progressive on nearly every issue, he also had close ties to Wall Street. This made him a formidable fundraiser, something that Ocasio-Cortez turned against Crowley in the primary. She eventually fundraised about $600,000 through small-dollar donors.
The district, which spans parts of the Bronx and Queens, is heavily Democratic, so Ocasio-Cortez is all but guaranteed to be a new member of Congress in November.
Who is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
At 28, Ocasio-Cortez couldn’t be a bigger contrast from the 56-year-old Crowley. She was born in the Bronx to working-class parents. Her mother is Puerto Rican. Her father is from the South Bronx. She’s a former staffer for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.
She’s certainly portrayed herself as a woman of the people, playing up her working-class roots in a viral introduction video, which shows Ocasio-Cortez riding the subway and doing community organizing work. It was created by Means of Production, a media production company run by DSA activists Naomi Burton and Nick Hayes.
It's time for a New York that works for all of us.
On June 26th, we can make it happen - but only if we have the #CourageToChange.
It's time to get to work. Please retweet this video and sign up to knock doors + more at https://t.co/kacKFI9RtI to bring our movement to Congress. pic.twitter.com/aqKMjovEjZ — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) May 30, 2018
What was most exciting for progressives is the degree to which Ocasio-Cortez ran to Crowley’s left. As a member of the DSA, her website is a laundry list of every blue-sky progressive policy: Medicare-for-all, housing and jobs guarantees, gun control, ending private prisons, abolishing ICE, and investment in post-hurricane Puerto Rico.
She had some help from a major Crowley misstep — he sent a surrogate to a primary debate, which led to a scathing editorial from the New York Times. “This is the second primary debate in which Mr. Crowley was a no-show. A spokeswoman for Mr. Crowley said he had scheduling conflicts that wouldn’t allow him to attend the two debates, inevitably leaving voters to wonder — what are we, chopped liver?” the editorial read.
What does this mean for the Democratic Party?
Ocasio-Cortez’s victory is a story of the complacent establishment taking voters for granted. It’s the story of how the Democratic Party is getting pulled to the left. It’s also about how it’s not just progressive policies that are reshaping the party, but also people of color.
Ocasio-Cortez ran decidedly to the left of Crowley, but she also shook up how Democrats go about getting elected. Until now, Democrats have seen big money in politics as simply a deal with the devil that had to be made. Democrats are so often outspent by Republican mega-donors that they viewed courting big-dollar donors and corporations as part of creating a level playing field.
But if one of Democrats’ top fundraisers and likely successor to Nancy Pelosi can be toppled, perhaps Democrats need to rethink that deal.
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Longtime Representative Joe Crowley was dealt a stunning upset in New York’s Democratic primary Tuesday by a young challenger from the party’s progressive wing, while Republican Representative Dan Donovan decisively beat back a challenge from former congressman and ex-convict Michael Grimm with the help of an endorsement from President Donald Trump.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who previously worked as an organizer for Senator Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign, won the Democratic nomination for Crowley’s district covering Queens and part of the Bronx in a race seen as a fight between the party’s old guard and a new, more liberal generation.
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, had never held elective office and was outspent by a wide margin by Crowley, who hadn’t faced a serious challenge since he was elected in 1998. With 88 percent of precincts counted she had 57.6 percent of the vote to Crowley’s 42.4 percent.
Crowley, 56, also ran unopposed under the banner of a minor party in the primary, meaning he could still appear on the November ballot. But in a statement Tuesday night, Crowley, who has served 10 terms in the House and had been widely considered a potential future candidate for House speaker, said he would support Ocasio-Cortez and other Democratic candidates in November for the sake of party unity.
Party Unity
“The Trump administration is a threat to everything we stand for here in Queens and the Bronx, and if we don’t win back the House this November, we will lose the nation we love,” Crowley said. “We will only be able to stop Donald Trump and the Republican Congress by working together, as a united Democratic Party."
In a district where the Census Bureau estimates that 45 percent of the residents are foreign-born, Ocasio-Cortez made immigration and Latino representation a centerpiece of her campaign. She seeks to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement and joined a protest outside a Texas detention center the weekend before the primary.
She would be the leading edge of the next generational shift on Capitol Hill and potentially the youngest member of Congress, if she wins in November in the heavily-Democratic seat.
Republicans reveled in the defeat of Crowley a member of the Democratic leadership in the House. Trump mocked Crowley in a tweet Tuesday night, and suggested Crowley should have "been nicer, and more respectful, to his President!"
Staten Island
In the Staten Island race, Donovan was declared the winner over Grimm, 64 percent to 36 percent with 96 percent of precincts counted in Tuesday’s primary. Donovan will face the Democratic nominee, Army veteran Max Rose. Grimm had given up the seat after pleading guilty to a felony tax charge,
Though Trump has endorsed Donovan and campaigned with him, Grimm has attempted to take on the Trump mantle. He has pointed to Donovan’s moderate record, particularly his vote against the GOP tax law, as evidence that he’s not loyal to the president.
Grimm served seven months in prison. Both Democrats and Republicans said Rose’s chances of a November victory would have been higher had Grimm defeated Donovan.
Seven states held votes on Tuesday, the last round of primaries before August. Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats to win the House and are showing strength in candidate recruitment, fundraising and other metrics.
Trump also was successful in picking a winning candidate in South Carolina, where Governor Henry McMaster won a Republican primary run-off. Trump campaigned with McMaster, one of the first elected officials to endorse his presidential campaign, in Columbia on Monday.
Mitt Romney, a Trump critic turned occasional ally, won the Republican nomination for Senate in Utah and is the overwhelming favorite to win election in the Republican-dominated state in November. Though Trump previously encouraged incumbent Senator Orrin Hatch to seek re-election, he endorsed Romney in February.
— With assistance by Ben Winck, and Katherine Scott
