Julia Cohen on June 26, 2018
Incumbent New York Democratic Rep. Joseph Crowley, the fourth most powerful Democrat in the House, lost to his Democratic Socialist challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the New York primary on Tuesday.
Crowley lost with 42.4 percent of the vote to Ocasio-Cortez’s 57.6 percent of the vote with 88 percent of precincts reporting, according to a New York Times report.
Ocasio-Cortez, who is 28 years old, ran on a progressive platform of Medicare for all, a federal jobs guarantee and abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to her campaign site. Cortez is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and she praised the DSA, saying that she is “so honored to have their endorsement” in a June 4 tweet.
“What we have built is permanent. No. Matter. What,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Tuesday shortly before the election was called.
Ocasio-Cortez also retweeted a picture of attorney Chase Strangio on Tuesday, who tweeted that “all white people are racist” on April 19. Strangio has almost 20,000 Twitter followers.
Crowley is currently the chairman of the Democratic Caucus, according to his official website. He has been in office since 1998, and had the backing of Silicon Valley, with Facebook’s PAC donating $2,500 to Crowley’s campaign committee in March, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Crowley had allegedly lost touch with his district, not campaigning after holding the seat for 10 years and taking his position for granted, a New York City political official told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Crowley alluded to possibly running for Speaker of the House if Democrats retook the majority in 2018, according to an April article from the New York Post. Crowley stated in that same article he would not have challenged Nancy Pelosi for the speakership.
“I would just wait and see what happened,” Crowley said on Fox News Sunday.
Incumbent Democratic Rep. Yvette Clarke, despite controversy, won her primary with 51.9 percent of the vote to challenger Adem Bunkeddeko, who got 48.1 percent of the vote with 99 percent of precincts reporting. Bunkeddeko, just 30 years old, was endorsed by TheNYT on June 14 because he would be “a more energetic advocate in Washington” than Clarke.
Clarke’s chief of staff tried to expose a suspected theft ring, but was met with resistance, the staffer told House investigators, The Daily Caller News Foundation reported Sunday. The congresswoman didn’t fire her IT aide, Abid Awan, until six months after Clarke acknowledged that $120,000 in equipment was missing, House records show, according to TheDCNF’s report.
Democratic candidate Suraj Patel, who infamously used Tinder, Bumble and Grindr to recruit voters and volunteers, lost his primary with 58.2 percent of the vote to incumbent Democratic Rep. Caroline Maloney, who got 58.2 percent of the vote with 87 percent of precincts reporting. Patel, who called the strategy “Tinder banking,” had campaign staff create fake dating app profiles to attract people to the campaign, according to an NYT article from June 21.
