Freshmen look to shape party as it controls House
Alexandria Ocasio-cortez has emerged rapidly as the de facto leader of a historic class of House Democrats whose diversity and ties to the progressive left will shape the party as it targets President Donald Trump and works to clarify its message before the 2020 elections.
Incoming members have exerted their influence quickly on Capitol Hill since the midterm elections, with progressives bolstering Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s bid for speaker by declining to endorse an opposition movement led by centrist Democrats.
Yet while Rep.-elect OcasioCortez, D-N.Y., and her liberal peers have chosen so far not to aggravate the leadership dispute, their relative youth, energy and progressive bent raised the specter of future conflict as centrists and liberals fight for control of the party’s agenda for the next two years.
“This is probably one of the most entrepreneurial, innovative and restless freshmen classes that we’ve seen in recent memory,” said former Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., who ran the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from 2011 to 2015. “What I would caution them to do is to keep their eye Lineups and broadcast times may change. 8 a.m. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-minn., and Sherrod Brown, Dohio; Gov. John Kasich, R-ohio. Kmgh-channel 7, ABC
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The threat of fresh divisions among House Democrats became clear after Ocasio-cortez beat Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, in a June primary in their Queens-based congressional district. The upset drew national attention. Ocasio-cortez, a democratic socialist, went on to campaign with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT., for like-minded candidates around the country and to generate a massive following online.
The midterm election produced a powerful class of freshman Democrats that has been riven by the speakership race, as centrists from red and purple districts express opposition to Pelosi and progressives back her or conspicuously decline to join the insurgents.
Ocasio-cortez threw support behind the would-be speaker during a recent live video on Instagram in which she told an audience of nearly 5,000 viewers that opposition to Pelosi was coming from her right flank.
She repeated this argument Wednesday on Twitter.
“All the challenges to Leader Pelosi are coming from her right, in an apparent effort to make the party even more conservative and bent toward corporate interests. Hard pass,” she wrote. “So long as Leader Pelosi remains the most progressive candidate for Speaker, she can count on my support.”
Ocasio-cortez won her primary after criticizing establishment Democrats for failing to push bold policy solutions to climate change, income inequity and rising health-care costs. She received support from progressive groups such as Justice Democrats, which also endorsed the House candidacies of Ilhan Omar, D-minn., Rashida Tlaib, D-mich., and Ayanna Pressley, D-mass.
These three women each broke barriers with their victories — Omar and Tlaib are the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, and Pressley is the first black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts. Eighteen newly elected House Democrats are under age 40 — three times the number who served this term.
“I think the women who won in the House, particularly Ms. Ocasio-cortez, are magnificent. They will be heard,” said former congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, D-calif., a co-leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus from 2006 to 2010.