The revolution continues and it is reinforced. Star MP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been overwhelmingly re-elected in her New York City constituency. According to the current count in the New York area code, the Democrat MP reached around 73 percent of the vote. The Democratic socialist and Bernie Sanders supporter had become a media personality in her first term. She let progressive politics go viral, for example through aggressive questioning of bankers in front of congressional committees and through her personal appearance in front of millions of followers on social media such as Twitter and Instagram. Ocasio-Cortez prevailed in 2018 in a surprise victory against a long-time incumbent.
Because her constituency NY 14 in the boroughs of Bronx and Queens is heavily dominated by the Democrats, her election in the general election in November is virtually guaranteed. Her right-wing challenger Michelle Caruso-Cabrera only received around 19.5 percent of the vote. She had received financial support and wrote a book years ago in which she praised Ronald Reagan.
A sensation similar to the election of Ocasio-Cortez two years ago apparently created Jamaal Bowman. The party left, which was supported by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Ocasio-Cortez and numerous progressive organizations, has defeated long-time incumbent Eliot Engel, that of Hillary Clinton, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer as well as the Party establishment had been supported. In the coming days, absentee votes will still be counted.
Bowman is the head of a school in the Bronx and, like Ocasio-Cortez, is calling for a Green New Deal, the introduction of the state universal health insurance Medicare For All and “racial and economic justice”. In the election campaign he accused the angel, who was re-elected 16 times and who has sat in the US Congress for 32 years and heads the Foreign Policy Committee, of being mainly “absent” in his constituency.
A few weeks ago, journalists from The Atlantic revealed that Engel did not appear in his constituency for weeks during the coronavirus pandemic and even faked his presence. Engel then tried to appear at a Black Lives Matter protest in the Bronx. Reporters caught a “hot mic” moment when the Jewish politician tried to convince those present to let him speak: “If I had no area code, I wouldn’t care.”
The election campaign in Engels constituency had turned into one in the last few weeks Proxy war developed between establishment and progressives, with even Republican financiers involved. While the left-wing Justice Democrats are supporting Bowman with hundreds of thousands of dollars in outside money and TV spots, the dark money group “Democratic Majority for Israel”, among others, which mobilized against Bernie Sanders in the presidential election, did the same for Engel. In direct mail, the Israel lobbyists accused Bowman of being an enemy of Israel. “Five million dollars for a dirty election campaign and it didn’t work,” said the left activist and former Justice Democrats employee Max Berger about Bowman’s likely election victory.
In the neighboring constituency of New York 17 in the northern suburbs of New York City, Mondaire Jones, a party-left and gay black man, prevailed against several moderate Democrats, including an ex-MP who had regularly cooperated with the Republicans in the State Senate and the son of a pharmaceutical billionaire. The constituency was competitive because the moderate previous incumbent had retired.
A gay left-wing liberal also prevailed in New York 15 constituency: Ritchie Torres, supported by the progressive establishment. He relegated former District President Rubén Díaz Sr., who had been conspicuous in the past with homophobic statements and extreme friendliness towards Donald Trump, to third place.
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The change is also arriving in the New York state parliament. A few more left-wing parliamentarians could be sitting there soon. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which has a particularly large number of members in New York City, officially had it in the primaries seven candidates supported. In addition to the DSA member Ocasio-Cortez and the DSA state senator Julia Salazar, who was also re-elected, the activist organization drummed for five other candidates it supported, mainly for the state parliament (150 members). Two of them can prevail according to the current count: Zohran Kwame Mamdani and Jabari Brisport.
Progressive challengers are only a few percentage points ahead or behind incumbent incumbents in half a dozen other seats for the state parliament. Because the postal votes will not be counted for the next few days, this could change the results. This could repeat what happened in 2018. Two years ago seven establishment Democrats in the New York Senate (63 members) lost their positions to left-wing challengers. This trend now seems to continue in the lower chamber of parliament, New York is moving slightly to the left.
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