By now, you’ve probably heard about Alexandria Oscasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old Democratic socialist who unseated 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley in New York’s 14th congressional district in her first campaign. The victory has been huge for a number of reasons: Crowley has always been seen as a likely replacement for Nancy Pelosi, and the polls a few weeks before the election showed Oscasio-Cortez to be 32 points behind. She won by 15 points.
It’s likely that Ocasio-Cortez will become the youngest woman ever elected in Congress. She spoke about the historical moment on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, who asked her how she beat the odds. “There’s the big thing—polling, people try to identify who’s the most likely person to turn out,” says Ocasio-Cortez, “and what we did is that we changed who turns out and that changes the whole election.” She shares one anecdote about being in the Bronx “about 8 minutes until the polls were closing”, and seeing two 19-year-old girls who said they voted for her. “I was, like, 19 years old, voting in an off-year, mid-term, primary election?”
As for her stance as a Democratic socialist, which is also getting a lot of press, the host asks her to elaborate. “That’s not an easy term for a lot of Americans”, Colbert points out.
“For me, democratic socialism is about—really, the value for me, is that I believe that in a modern, moral and wealthy society, no person in America should be too poor to live.”
“Seems simple,” replies Colbert.
“Seems pretty simple. So what that means to me is health care as a human right. It means that every child, no matter where you are born, should have access to a college or trade school education—if they so choose. I think that no person should be homeless if we can have public structures and public policy to allow for people to have homes and food and lead a dignified life in the United States”, says Ocasio-Cortez. Her other positions include abolishing ICE, green industry, demilitarizing the police, and more
Colbert then moves on to Donald Trump’s celebration of Crowley’s loss, which he attributed to Crowley not being “nicer, and more respectful” to him on Twitter. Ocasio-Cortez says, “Well, you know, the President is from Queens. And with all due respect, half of my district is from Queens. I don’t think he knows how to deal with a girl from the Bronx.”
You can also watch Colbert talk about Ocasio-Cortez in a monologue yesterday, before announcing that she’ll be his guest. He talks about Crowley’s send-off song and Trump’s tweet. (“He’s right, Queens is big on politeness. That’s why on every street corner you hear, ‘Excuse me sir, I am walking here. But you may forget about it.'”)
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