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WASHINGTON – Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez intends to announce Tuesday her support for Marie Newman, a progressive candidate seeking to oust Representative Daniel Lipinski, a Democrat from Illinois to conservative trend, during its first stage of the 2020 campaign cycle to support a main opponent a holder.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez's highly publicized support amounts to a powerful seal of approval, telegraphed to her legions of fervent Liberal supporters, on behalf of Ms. Newman, and reflects the zeal of the party's progressive left to take advantage of her nascent power. continue to target sitting Democrats.
Ms. Newman is backed by Justice Democrats, the group that propelled the insurgency campaign of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and thwarted last year's victory over a former Democratic Congressman who she said was in trouble. gap with his constituents. A business woman who has describes himself as "a true democrat" Ms. Newman also appeared in 2018 against Mr. Lipinski and lost about 2,000 votes.
"Marie Newman is a classic example of one of the ways we could be better as a party: to go from a blue seat and defend all the issues we need to defend," Ocasio-Cortez said in a speech. interview.
On Lipinski, she said, "The fact that a deep blue seat advocates many parts of the Republican agenda is extremely problematic. We are not talking about a rotating state that is forced to take difficult votes. "
Mr. Lipinski, 53, presents himself in his campaign ads as "a workhorse, not a show horse", and the eight-term Congressman opposes the right to abortion and voted against the law on affordable care, repeatedly expressed concern that it is "prejudicial" for the party to bring out the conservative lawmakers. He succeeded his father, William O. Lipinski, who held the seat for more than two decades before the election of the youngest, Mr. Lipinski, in 2004.
Ms. Newman, a 55-year-old abortion rights advocate who founded a consulting firm, argues that the incumbent congressman is much more conservative than the district, an area encompassing the southern suburbs. west of Chicago.
"This campaign aims to put in place a person directly aligned with the district on issues such as affordability for the middle class and working families, the Green New Deal," said Ms. Newman on Monday. in an interview, adding that she Ocasio-Cortez "shares very similar values."
But this decision also reflects a cautious political calculation of Mrs. Ocasio-Cortez, a Bronx Democrat. She came to Congress to pledge to overthrow any democrat that she deems insufficiently progressive, but until now, she has refrained from directly engaging one of colleagues. By defying Mr Lipinski, she is targeting a practicing Democrat, but who has broken with party orthodoxy and has already lost the support of some of his fellow Democrats.
In April, the House Democrats' campaign arm officially broke the committee's working relationship with political consultants and pollsters who pledge to work for primary challengers, infuriating Progressive Democrats. Ms. Newman said the blacklist "was a very expensive issue for a while in my campaign".
Progressive groups and lawmakers, however, have always flocked to support Ms. Newman. The California representative, Ro Khanna, and two Illinois legislators, the representative Jan Schakowsky and the then representative, Luis V. Gutiérrez, broke with the party leadership in 2018 to support Ms. Newman . Khanna renewed his support this year. Representative Cheri Bustos of Illinois, chair of the House Democrats campaign group, canceled a fundraiser for Lipinski in May, after suffering a violent reaction from the left.
Ms. Newman also won the support of two candidates for the Democratic presidential primary, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Warren announced last week the appointment of two Democrat Judge candidates, supporting Newman and Jessica Cisneros, who challenges Texas representative Henry Cuellar.
Ms. Cisneros, who was recruited to run against Mr. Cuellar by the Democratic Judge and who is described by some as the next Mrs. Ocasio-Cortez, has not yet obtained the endorsement of any democrat of the Room in function.
"We are very proud that Marie Newman is the first democratic judge in this cycle to be endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez," said Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats. "Our movement is increasingly taking the Democratic Party to fight for solutions as important as the problems we face and to create a party that fights for its constituents, not for business."
Until this week, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez focused on helping incumbent legislators, such as Colorado representative Joe Neguse, a beloved recruit and Democratic executive member whom she would support at a fundraiser. of funds in Boulder this week. In April, she rallied to some of her colleagues who overthrew the districts won by President Trump in 2016, encouraging his Twitter followers to donate to their campaigns.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said that she would continue to assess whether she would take part in other major challenges, but that she had no interest in intervening in competitive races likely to tip over the balance of power in the House.
"If we are to make these changes, they must come from safe blue seats," she said.
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