Thinking Citizen Blog — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Youngest Woman Elected to Congress

Thinking Citizen Blog — Sunday is Political Process, Campaign Strategy, and Candidate Selection Day

Today’s Topic: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Youngest Woman Elected to Congress

At age 29, AOC was the youngest person in the 116th Congress when she took office in 2019. She was also the youngest woman ever to serve in the US Congress. In the biggest surprise of the 2018 midterm election primaries, she had upset 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley, the Democratic Caucus chair who had support of the Governor (Cuomo), the Mayor (diBlasio), and both of New York’s US Senators (Schumer and Gillenbrand). She was a self-proclaimed socialist and member of Democratic Socialists of America. Soon after her election she became “the second most talked-about politician in America, after the President of the United States.” She was the “wonder woman of the Left” and the “wicked witch of the Right.” Today, a few random notes. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.

NEVER HAD SO FEW VOTES GENERATED SUCH POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CAPITAL SO QUICKLY

1. In the primary, she defeated Crowley by a margin of 4018 votes: 16,898 to 12,880. As the district is overwhelmingly Democratic, the general election result was not a surprise: 78% (100,318) for AOC to 13% for the Republican, Anthony Pappas, who did not bother campaigning.

2. She had been outspent by a margin of 18 to 1 ($1.5 million to $83,000).

3. “Merriam-Webster reported that searches for the word “socialism” spiked 1,500% after her victory.”

NB: In 2020 she was re-elected by a margin of 71.6% (152,661) to 27.4% (58,440).

HER PLATFORM — health care, immigration, education, taxation

1. Medicare for All, a federal jobs guarantee, the Green New Deal.

2. Abolition of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), free public college and trade school

3. A 70% marginal tax rate on millionaires.

THE CANTOR ANALOGY (2014) AND HISTORICAL SOCIALIST PRECEDENTS

1. “Several commentators noted the similarities between Ocasio-Cortez’s victory over Crowley and Dave Brat’s Tea Party movement-supported 2014 victory over House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the Republican primary for Virginia’s 7th congressional district. Like Crowley, Cantor was a high-ranking member in his party’s caucus.” (first link)

2. “The first socialist elected to Congress, in 1911, was Victor L. Berger of Wisconsin, a German-born Jew who had founded the Socialist Party of America along with the labor leader and perennial presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs.” (sixth link)

3. “Often paired with Berger in the history books is Meyer London, another Socialist Party member, who represented Manhattan’s Lower East Side in Congress in 1915–19 and again in 1921–23. A Jewish immigrant from Russia, London also pushed for reforms that appeared radical at the time but seem mainstream today: a minimum wage, unemployment insurance and anti-lynching laws.” (ditto)

FOOTNOTES — district, parents, education

1. Her district includes “the eastern part of the Bronx portions of north-central Queens and Rikers Island in New York City.”

2. Both her parents are of Puerto Rican descent. Her father, an architect, was born in the Bronx. her mother was born in Puerto Rico.

3. She graduated from Boston University with a joint degree in international relations and economics.

NB: In college she served as an intern for Ted Kennedy, in 2016 she worked as an organizer for Bernie Sanders.

https://time.com/longform/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-profile/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandria_Ocasio-Cortez

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Democratic_Caucus#List_of_Caucus_Chairmen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_youngest_members_of_the_United_States_Congress

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_of_the_House

https://www.wsj.com/articles/socialists-are-no-strangers-to-congress-11546530927

Here is a link to the last three years of posts organized by theme:

PDF with headlines — Google Drive

YOUR TURN

Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to political process or campaign strategy or 2020 candidate selection or anything else for that matter.

This is your chance to make some one else’s day or change their thinking.Or to consolidate in your own memory something worth remembering that might otherwise be lost. Or to clarify or deepen your own understanding of something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.