The revolution of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez



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It is assumed that she should not have won.

"Women like me are not supposed to run for political office," he said in a video broadcast in late May, shortly before challenging the Democratic district primaries with the veteran. Joe Crowley.

"I was not born into a rich or powerful family My mother is from Puerto Rico, my father is from the South Bronx I was born in a place where your postal code determines your destiny."

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez I could serve drinks or attend tables right now, as I did until last year. Participate in the actions of the Black Lives Matters movement or demonstrations of solidarity with the victims. Concerned about paying your university loans.

Since last Tuesday, she is the youngest elected parliamentarian in the history of United States.

Triumph at the primary

He was born in 1989 in the Bronx, Parkchester, an old district of Irish and Italians, in which most are today Afro-Americans, Hispanics and Asians. Her parents, aware of the limitations of local schools, sent her to study in a white neighborhood, where her state of health made her job twice as hard as her classmates.

Through savings, scholarships and student loans, he studied economics and international relations at Boston University and worked as an assistant in the Democratic Senator's office. Ted Kennedy.

In 2008, his father died of cancer. "The last thing my father said was Enorgulleceme, I took it literally," he said later. It was a difficult time: his mother was cleaning and driving a school bus. The family was full of debts.

Alexandria had to rethink her goals: she took a job as a waitress and had to work shifts that could go up to 18 hours. His mother and grandmother had to move to Florida to save money. She stayed in the Bronx.

End of 2016, after the unsuccessful but shocking campaign of Bernie Sanders In the Democratic primaries, a group of followers of the Vermont senator began seeking new personalities with this profile, progressive and unincorporated, who would run in the November 2018 parliamentary elections.

After learning that the Brand New Congress Group accepted the applications, the younger brother of Alexandria decided to apply. He asked her and she, almost without paying attention because she was busy, said of course. They called her, they saw her background, her videos talk about events at the university, they listened to her ideas and they bet on it.

She did not believe it. "I mean, am I going to tell people that me, who's a waitress, should be their next congressman?"

What followed was a year of work. Without accepting the contractors' money, house by house, telephone by phone, Alexandria and her campaign team attempted to reach the largest number of voters in her congressional district on the 14th (between Queens and the US). Bronx). They made 170,000 calls, touched 120,000 doors and sent 120,000 text messages.

An important point in his favor was his performance in three of the debates held in front of his competitor in the current and former Democrat MP Joe Crowley. The first, Crowley – which then had more than 30 points in front of him – was not due to problems on the agenda. In the second case, the veteran politician treated him patronizingly. And in the third, he sent a Latina exconcejala, "with a slight resemblance to me," he said, suggesting an electoral ploy originally racist.

On the night of June 26 of this year, television showed the image of Alexandria covering her mouth with her hand, unable to believe the results she saw on the screens: she had won the Democratic nomination to a white man, rich and powerful He had been fourteen years without losing an election and everyone they knew as the king of the queen.

Intermediate elections

During this election campaign, a voter asked him on Twitter why he should vote for her. Alexandria replied:

"1. I am the only candidate not to accept money from companies 2. I believe in health insurance (public health) for all, housing as a right, reform of the Justice and free public universities 3. I have the courage to denounce corruption in New York 4. I really live here. "

Real estate companies are moving residents of the Bronx and Queens neighborhoods, a problem they have resolved. It will also endorse the problem of the criminalization of immigrants: it calls for the closure of the immigration and customs police service, which keeps hundreds of migrant families separate.

Alexandria is socialist, like Bernie Sanders, but socialism in the United States is very different from Cuba or Venezuela. It's closer to the ideas of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his New Deal.

Last Tuesday, his speech against inequality made him beat his Republican rival, Anthony Pappas, with 78% of the votes, and becomes, at 29, the youngest member of Congress in the history of his country.

His arrival in the House of Representatives and that of other minority women Democrats, such as Rashida Tlaibex-hostage of Somali origin; and Deborah Haaland and Sharice Davids, the first two Aboriginal peoples to get a seat, represents a new era for Democrats and North American politics. Women who are not supposed to be here. But they have arrived and now they will start making changes.

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