Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is going to Washington. The 28-year-old democratic socialist from New York’s 14th Congressional district won Tuesday’s election, defeating Republican Anthony Pappas. Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign refused to take corporate money, ran hard on economic and social justice, and offered a full-throated defense of progressive policy like Medicare for all—and fucking won.
Ocasio-Cortez handily won the Democratic nomination over 56-year-old incumbent Joseph Crowley in June, who had held the seated for over a decade and hadn’t faced a primary challenger since 2004. Her primary victory caught some news outlets off-guard; the New York Times, for example, hadn’t much bothered to cover her campaign until then.
The night of the primary election, a video was taken that shows Ocasio-Cortez watching the results announcing her win on TV; she screams because she can’t believe it. But no one can be reasonably be surprised anymore. She did that shit.