by Linda Castillo
Congratulations to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her remarkable Democratic primary victory in New York’s 14th Congressional District. Born and raised in the Bronx, she is the daughter of Puerto Rican parents who wants to be the new champion for working families of New York. Running on a platform for Medicare for all, tuition free public college, a federal jobs guarantee, criminal justice reform and full abolition of ICE she took on Democratic incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley and fourth-ranking Democrat in the House.
Her grassroots campaign raised $300,000 in comparison to Crowley’s $3,354,370. “I’m the ONLY candidate in this race to publicly pledge not to take Corporate PAC money. My campaign is 100% people-funded,” she noted on her campaign website. Her campaign took off when her biographic campaign announcement video went viral. The video showed Alexandria’s daily life as an educator, an organizer, and a working class New Yorker.
“This race is about people versus money. We’ve got people, they’ve got money. It’s time we acknowledge that not all Democrats are the same,” she said in her campaign video.
Only days before the primary, Alexandria went to join the protest at an ICE detention center in Texas where she confronted border officers. This is what a future Congresswoman does.
The child detention camps are here – I confronted the border officers myself.
Using their names, I told them exactly what they are responsible for.
One of them made eye contact with me.
I spoke directly to him.
I saw his sense of guilt.
We can dismantle this.#AbolishICE pic.twitter.com/QLyc9MAnkt— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) June 24, 2018
Alexandria’s historic victory means so much. It means that we want change and leaders in office who will be advocates for the people. It means that the time has come for Latinas to run for office. It means that if we want change then we have to step up to be the change agents. It means that big money doesn’t always win.
Come November Alexandria could be the first Latina to represent her district in Congress.
Linda Castillo is the Founder and Executive Editor of www.ModernLatina.com. She writes on topics that empower and inspire Latinas including art, motherhood, green living, culture, travel, and issues transforming the Latino community. Linda has earned a B.S. in Business and a M.S. in Mass Communications from San Jose State University.