OCASIO-CORTEZ BACKS SLATE OF DEM WOMEN
Georgette Gómez of San Diego among those endorsed
WASHINGTON
Rep. Alexandria Ocasiocortez on Friday endorsed an all-female slate of progressive candidates, including San Diego’s Georgette Gómez, through her new political action committee, using her clout in the insurgent left and the considerable campaign funds she has drawn to counter the Democratic establishment in key races around the country.
The endorsements of the congressional candidates amount to a powerful stamp of approval for a diverse group of newcomers. They also are a clear sign that Ocasio-cortez, a celebrity of the liberal left, intends to leverage her influence among activists to try to reshape the Democratic Party.
The move also underlines the struggle among Democrats that is defining the race for the presidency, which is pitting Sen. Bernie Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist, against more moderate candidates who are presenting themselves as better able to appeal to a broad section of voters in taking on President Donald Trump. Ocasio-cortez has traversed the country to campaign for
Sanders, and her efforts to pull Congress to the left parallel his bid to deploy his progressive message to emerge as the Democratic nominee, an effort that has instilled fear in many centrist lawmakers who believe it could cost them their seats.
“One of our primary goals is to reward political courage in Congress and also to help elect a progressive majority in the House of Representatives,” Ocasio-cortez said in an interview. “There’s kind of a dual nature to this: One is opening the door to newcomers, and the other is to reward members of Congress that are exhibiting very large amounts of political courage.”
Her own upset victory in 2018 over a 20-year Democratic congressman has inspired a slew of Democratic primary challenges across the nation targeting powerful incumbents — though many have little chance of winning. Ocasio-cortez, who toppled a top party leader in her primary election, has carefully selected the races in which she is intervening with an eye for districts where her seal of approval would help the primary challenger prevail.
“Anyone can show up one day and say, ‘I support all these policies; that makes me a progressive,’ ” she said. “But one of the things that is really important to us is winning.”
In the committee’s first slate of endorsements, Ocasio-cortez is backing seven women running for congressional seats, including Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, a labor and voting rights activist who is running against the candidate endorsed by Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, M.J. Hegar, to take on a Republican, Sen. John Cornyn. Three others — Gómez, the San Diego City Council president; Teresa Leger Fernandez in New Mexico and Samelys López in New York — are running for open seats in Democratic districts. Gómez, who is seeking to replace Rep. Susan Davis in the 53rd District, has also been endorsed by Sanders. Another, Kara Eastman, is challenging Rep. Don Bacon, R-neb., for a second time.
Ocasio-cortez has already announced her support for primary challengers to a pair of her House Democratic colleagues: Marie Newman, who is running against Rep. Daniel Lipinski of Illinois, and Jessica Cisneros, who is seeking to oust Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas.
Democratic strategists say that Ocasio-cortez could shape the terrain for congressional candidates in powerful ways.
Leveraging her name recognition and ability to bring in an avalanche of donations with a single post on Twitter, Ocasio-cortez began the Courage to Change political action committee in January, pledging to elect “working-class champions” and explicitly framing the enterprise as a progressive counterweight to House Democrats’ campaign arm.