28-year-old Alexandria Okasio-Cortes won democratic primaries in New York. She does not take money from corporations and stands for the working class

Alexandria Okasio-Cortes never engaged in politics

On June 26, the primary party elections were held in the seven states of the United States, the results were supposed to determine who would be elected to Congress in November 2018. The main candidate from the 14th district of New York (it includes the Kuins and Bronx areas) was considered the current congressman, 56-year-old democrat Joe Crouly. He held this post for ten in a row and, according to rumors, was supposed to lead the democratic faction in the House of Representatives in the future. In his election campaign, he managed to raise three million dollars from large sponsor companies.

Few people expected that someone could defeat the policy with such support and the track record. Moreover, his main rival was the 28-year-old native of Bronx, Alexandria Okasio-Cortes, who had almost no political experience. She led her election campaign “in the field”: she went around the residents of the district, talked about her program and collected small donations, completely abandoning the money of corporations. Thus, she managed to raise 300 thousand dollars - ten times less Crowley.

As a result, Okasio-Cortes scored 58% of the vote on primaries, ahead of Crowley by 16 percentage points. If it goes to Congress (and this is very likely, since the Democrats have great support in her district), it will become the youngest woman in the House of Representatives in her entire history.

Okasio-Cortes was born in a poor family. She had to work at 18 hours a day

Okasio-Cortes's father owned a small business, and his mother came from Puerto Rico and worked as a cleaner and a school bus driver; The girl had to go to study at a municipal school for almost 50 kilometers - to Yorrtaun. After school, she entered the Boston University, graduating from a degree in economics and international relations. Okasio-Cortes became the first person in his family to receive higher education.

Soon the girl’s father died of cancer. Okasio-Cortes had to work in two shifts to help mother-during the day in state organizations, and in the evenings a bartender and a waitress. According to her, I had to work at 18 hours a day. “I understand the pain of Americans from the working class well because I survived it myself,” Okasio-Cortes explained .

During her studies, Okasio-Cortes worked at the headquarters of Senator Teda Kennedy, she dealt with immigration issues. As stated on the site of the Okasio-Cortes election campaign, she since childhood knew well about the social inequality in American society-and understood that the place of birth of a person largely determines his fate.

Okasio-Cortes promises to support the working class and fight for free medicine and education

In 2016, she participated in the election campaign of Bernie Sanders and was engaged in activism, in particular, protested against the project of the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline through the lands of indigenous Americans. After the victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential election, Okasio-Cortes realized that it was necessary to act decisively-and in May 2017 she began his own election campaign. In her opinion, the congressman Joe Crowley - a middle -aged white man from the political elite - did not represent the interests of voters, did not live their lives, but instead supported large corporations.

Okasio-Cortes herself, on the contrary, promised to protect and represent the interests of the local multicultural community in Congress. “This is the confrontation of people and a lot of money. They have money, and we have people, ”said her election video. She explained that the life of the working class in New York is becoming more and more difficult: the costs of housing and medicine are growing, but income-no. In an interview with Nowthis, Okasio-Cortes said that the whole American system does not allow people from the working class-teachers, nannies, waitresses-to get into politics. “The time has come for one of us,” she concluded in her pre -election video.

In her program, Okasio-Cortes made a bet on free state medical care and higher education for all Americans. She also promised to fight for guaranteed workplaces and affordable housing, and also called for dissolving the US immigration police. On the weekend before the elections, she even went to Texas - to take part in a protest campaign against the actions of the immigration police, which shared the family of illegal migrants.

The victory of Okasio-Cortes was a surprise to herself. True, not all democrats are delighted

Alexandria Okasio-Cortes herself could not believe in her victory in the primaries. During the announcement of the voting results, she was in a billiard bar in Bronx. When a percentage of votes gained on her showed on the TV screen, she began to scream, and at the request of a journalist to comment on what had happened, she admitted that she simply had no words. “This victory belongs to everyone who donated money, who helped me in work, to everyone who works and at the same time raises children, every mother and every member of the LGBTK community,” she thanked the voters when she could cope with emotions.

Bernie Sanders, in a commentary by Time magazine, said that when the politician addresses the common people and talks about the problems of ordinary people from his area, he cannot but win. “Now we have more than a hundred million people who are fighting for food. And 30 million people without medical care, ”Sanders said in a conversation with Time.

However, other colleagues of Okasio-Cortes in the Democratic Party were not so impressed by her victory. In particular, the Democrat and Congressman from South Carolina Jim Klaibern stated in a conversation with Time that the outcome of this vote does not speak of changes in the party’s course (many media wrote about the crisis and overdue changes in the ranks of the democrats).

The loser of the election Joe Crowley learned about their results in one of the restaurants of Kuins, where he hoped to celebrate his victory. The politician reacted to this, taking out the guitar and performing Bruce Springstin’s song “Born To Run” . He dedicated it to Alexandria Okasio-Cortes. In his official statement, he congratulated the party colleague on the victory and promised to support her in the elections to Congress in November. “The Trump administration is a threat to everything that we are fighting in Cuins and Bronx, and if we do not win the House of Representatives, we will lose the country that we love,” Crowley said.

Olga Strachovskaya