Ocasio-Cortez Strains for Insurgent Democrats in the Midwest

NEW YORK – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is back on the run of the campaign, but this time in the Midwest. The 28-year-old Democratic rising star is shaking up two progressive young Democrats who hope to win Democratic primaries in Kansas and Michigan.

On Friday, she will travel to Wichita, Kansas, to join Senator Bernie Sanders in campaigning for James. Thompson, a Democrat who seeks to overthrow a congressional seat once considered Republican safe. Then, on July 28 and 29, she will visit Michigan to focus her national attention on Abdul El-Sayed, a 33-year-old progressive candidate for governorship. She will travel throughout Michigan, including Grand Rapids, Flint and Detroit

"Currently, we are in a critical phase in our country," Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement issued by the US-based campaign. ; El-Sayed. In the Queens and Bronx neighborhoods of New York, Ocasio-Cortez came out of nowhere to bother Joseph Crowley, the 10-year-old incumbent, at the Democratic Congress primaries last month. It remains to be seen whether his populist and progressive brand can help win a congressional election in the Midwest. Sanders, Vermont, defeated Hillary Clinton in Kansas and Michigan in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries.

Ocasio-Cortez, Thompson and El-Sayed are part of Justice Democrats, a political action committee formed by the organizers of the 2016 Sanders presidential election. campaign. They support a number of progressive candidates across the country who are not career politicians and have promised to refuse corporate donations.

Thompson, who is a veteran and a civil rights lawyer, has achieved 6 percentage points of Republican Ron Estes 'last year' s special election in Kansas. He has a competitor in the Democratic primary.

El-Sayed is the former Public Health Commissioner of Detroit and seeks to upset the former Democratic Sen. Gretchen Whitmer.

The primaries in Kansas and Michigan take place on August 7th. 19659013] "This is a huge boost to our campaign to welcome Senator Sanders and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez to Wichita," Thompson said in a statement. "The interest and enthusiasm here have been electric."

Several leading figures of Justice Democrats became closely linked to the Ocasio-Cortez campaign. Saikat Chakrabarti, who founded the PAC and developed the technology for Sanders, now presents himself as a senior adviser to Ocasio-Cortez. And Corbin Trent, Another Leader of the Democratic Justice, Coordinates His Press

The Group Not only seeks to win elections against Republicans, but to target "corporate democrats" by recruiting candidates with experience ground. They are taking advantage of the new spot of Ocasio-Cortez to win victories further.

Jake DeGroot, a volunteer for the Ocasio-Cortez campaign, said that other campaigns had contacted them for advice. the engagement of voters. He said that a team of volunteers from the Ocasio-Cortez campaign "stays up all night" working on a version of the application that other campaigns can use.

But DeGroot said, "This is only useful if there is a candidate excited by."

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This story has been corrected to note that El -Sayed and Whitmer have held their positions in the past.

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