Political payback
Party supporters going wild as news of Democrats taking the US House of Representatives broke during a celebration in Boston, Massachusetts. Democrats successfully seized control of the lower house of Congress in midterm elections, dealing a stern rebuke to Donald Trump’s rollercoaster presidency.
NEW YORK: Democratic rising star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made history as the youngest woman elected to Congress, riding a wave of minority women taking office and cementing her place as a prominent voice on the left of US politics.
“We have made history tonight,” the grinning 29-year-old told cheering supporters at her victory party in Queens, an astonishing victory for a woman working in a Manhattan restaurant only a year ago.
She has championed her working-class and Puerto Rican roots as the daughter of a cleaner and a father who died in his 40s, embodying a different generation of politician and shunning corporate donors.
With telegenic looks, charisma and youthful idealism, she is at once a media darling and a lightning rod for criticism.
On Tuesday, she signalled a deep ambition running beyond the confines of her constituency and thanked organisers for building a “larger movement for social, economic and racial justice in the United States of America”, in a stirring speech that ended with confetti falling from the ceiling.
“If we are going to turn this ship around as a country it is not good enough to throw a rock at our neighbour’s yard, we’ve got to clean up our own house,” she said.
“There is nothing inherently noble about protecting a status quo that does not serve the needs of working class Americans.”
In a further sign that her dreams run big she spoke of the galvanising power that her campaign had on other insurgent races around the country and vowed that hers would be the generation to flip the Republican state of Texas blue.
From the start, Ocasio-Cortez traded heavily on her non-privileged background in her quest to defeat a 10-term, Democratic Party grandee in her first political race in a New York primary on June 26.
Overnight, she went from total unknown to the toast of coastal America, profiled in Vogue, a guest on chat shows and jetting around the country lending her rock-star status to other insurgent candidates.
She is also the first person of colour to represent the safe Democratic seat in diverse Queens and the Bronx, which is largely immigrant.
When she beat incumbent Joe Crowley, she was moonlighting as a bartender.
“It’s really one of the most remarkable stories I’ve ever heard,” said talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel in a breathless introduction.
Ocasio-Cortez once worked for the late senator Ted Kennedy while studying economics and international relations at Boston University. She has worked with female entrepreneurs in Africa and in education.