The2018 New York's 14th congressional district election was held on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. The primaries forNew York's federal elections were held earlier in the year on June 26.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated incumbent congressmanJoe Crowley in the primary, and went on to defeatRepublican opponent Anthony Pappas in the general election.
As a political newcomer, Ocasio-Cortez was not expected to defeat Crowley in the primary election.[1][2][3] As the results were tabulated, the race drew national recognition when it became clear that Ocasio-Cortez would win over Crowley, theDemocratic Caucus Chairman and a 10-term incumbent. Ocasio-Cortez began her campaign in April 2017[4] while waiting tables and tending bar at Flats Fix, ataqueria in New York City'sUnion Square.[5] She was the first person since 2004 to challenge Crowley in a primary, and she undertook agrassroots campaign without donations from corporations orPACs.[4]
Ocasio-Cortez went on to defeat Pappas in the district election. Taking office at age 29, Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest woman to serve in theUnited States Congress.[4][6]
The 14th district is located inNew York City and includes the EasternBronx and part of North-CentralQueens. The incumbent was Democrat Joe Crowley, a leader of theNew Democrat Coalition. Crowley had represented the district since 2013, after representing the7th district from 1999 to 2013. He was re-elected for a tenth term, with 83% of the votes, in 2016. Crowley, who had been named as a potential successor toNancy Pelosi as House Leader orSpeaker, sought re-election in 2018.[7]
At the time of the election, Crowley was the incumbentU.S. Representative fromNew York's 14th congressional district. First elected to the seat in 1998, Crowley replacedThomas J. Manton who, having already circulated petitions and filed for re-election, withdrew on the last day it was legally possible. Manton phoned Crowley to tell him his name would be on the general election ballot. During his tenure, Crowley served asChair of the House Democratic Caucus from 2017 to 2019, as well as the local chairman of theQueens County Democratic Party from 2006 to 2019. He previously served in theNew York State Assembly from 1987 to 1998.[8][9][10]
Ocasio-Cortez's congressional campaign logo was inspired by "revolutionary posters and visuals from the past."
Before running for Congress, Ocasio-Cortez was an activist and worked as a waitress and bartender. She majored ininternational relations and economics atBoston University, graduatingcum laude in 2011.[11] She was an organizer inBernie Sanders'2016 presidential campaign.[12] Backed by the organizationBrand New Congress, Ocasio-Cortez challenged Crowley in the June primary alleging that Crowley was notprogressive enough for the district.[13] Ocasio-Cortez began her campaign in April 2017[4] while waiting tables and tending bar at Flats Fix, ataqueria in New York City'sUnion Square.[5] "For 80 percent of this campaign, I operated out of a paper grocery bag hidden behind that bar," she toldBon Appétit.[14]
Ocasio-Cortez was the first person since 2004 to challenge Crowley in a primary. She faced a financial disadvantage, saying: "You can't really beat big money with more money. You have to beat them with a totally different game."[15][16][17] Ocasio-Cortez's campaign undertookgrassroots mobilization and did not take donations from corporations.[4] It was reported that the designs of the campaign posters were inspired by "revolutionary posters and visuals from the past."[18] During the campaign, Ocasio-Cortez resided inParkchester, Bronx, with web developer[19] and boyfriend, Riley Roberts.[20][21][22]
Because residents of the 14th district are overwhelmingly Democratic, the primary election was more significant than the general election. Ocasio-Cortez's victory against Crowley was widely seen as the biggestupset of the2018 midterm elections.[1][2][3]
On June 15, the candidates' only face-to-face encounter during the campaign occurred on a local political talk show,Inside City Hall. The format was a joint interview conducted byErrol Louis, whichNY1 characterized as a debate.[32] On June 18, a debate in the Bronx was scheduled, but Crowley did not participate. He sent formerNew York City Council memberAnnabel Palma in his place.[33][34][35]
On June 26, 2018, Ocasio-Cortez received 57% of the vote (15,897), to Joe Crowley's 43% (11,761), defeating the 10-term incumbent by almost 15 percentage points.[36] Her win, and Crowley's defeat, came as a shock to many political commentators and analysts, and immediately garnered nationwide attention.Time called her victory "the biggestupset of the 2018 elections so far".[37]CNN made a similar statement.[2]The New York Times described Crowley's loss as "a shocking primary defeat on Tuesday, the most significant loss for a Democratic incumbent in more than a decade, and one that will reverberate across the party and the country".[24]The Guardian called it "one of the biggest upsets in recent American political history".[38] She was outspent by a margin of 18 to 1 ($1.5 million to $83,000), but won the endorsement of some influential groups on the left.[39]Merriam-Webster reported that searches for the word "socialism" spiked 1,500% after her victory.[40] Crowley conceded defeat on election night,[41] but did not telephone Ocasio-Cortez that night to congratulate her, fueling short-lived speculation that he intended to run against her in the general election.[42]
Bernie Sanders andNoam Chomsky congratulated Ocasio-Cortez.[43][44] Several commentators noted the similarities between Ocasio-Cortez's victory over Crowley andDave Brat'sTea Party movement-supported 2014 victory over House Majority LeaderEric Cantor in the Republican primary forVirginia's 7th congressional district.[45][46] Like Crowley, Cantor was a high-ranking member in his party's caucus.[47] After her primary win, Ocasio-Cortez endorsed several progressive primary challengers to Democratic incumbents nationwide,[48] capitalizing on her fame and spending her political capital in a manner unusual even for unexpected primary winners.[49]
Without campaigning for it, Ocasio-Cortez won theReform Party primary as awrite-in candidate in a neighbouring congressional district,New York's 15th, with a total vote count of nine, highest among all 22 write-in candidates. She declined the nomination.[50][51]
Ocasio-Cortez faced Republican nominee Anthony Pappas in the November 6 general election.[52] Pappas, who lives inAstoria, is an economics professor atSt. John's University. According to theNew York Post, Pappas did not actively campaign. ThePost also wrote that "Pappas' bid was a long shot," since the 14th has aCook Partisan Voting Index of D+29, making it the sixth most Democratic district inNew York City. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by almost six to one.[53][54][55] The district and its predecessors have been in Democratic hands for all but two years since 1923 and without interruption since 1949.
Ocasio-Cortez was endorsed by various politicallyprogressive organizations and figures, including former presidentBarack Obama and U.S. SenatorBernie Sanders.[56][57] She spoke at theNetroots Nation conference in August 2018 and was called "the undisputed star of the convention."[58]
Crowley also remained on the ballot as the nominee of theWorking Families Party (WFP) and theWomen's Equality Party (WEP). Neither Crowley nor the WFP party actively campaigned, with both having endorsed Ocasio-Cortez after her Democratic primary victory.[59] Ocasio-Cortez described the WEP, which Governor Cuomo created ahead of the2014 New York gubernatorial election, as a cynical, centrist group that endorsed male incumbents over female challengers like her and Nixon.[60] Former Connecticut SenatorJoe Lieberman, who won reelection in 2006 on a third-party lineafter losing the Democratic Primary in 2006, penned a July 17 column in theWall Street Journal expressing his hope that Crowley would actively campaign on the WFPballot line.[61]Dan Cantor, Executive Director of the WFP, wrote an endorsement of, and apology to, Ocasio-Cortez for theNew York Daily News. He asked voters not to vote for Crowley if his name remained on the general election ballot.[62]
Ocasio-Cortez won the election with 78% of the vote (110,318) to Pappas' 14% (17,762). Crowley, on the WFP and WEP lines, received 9,348 votes (6.6%).Saikat Chakrabarti, who had been her campaign co-chair, becamechief of staff for her congressional office.[63] As co-creator of two progressive political action committees, he has been called a significant political presence.[64]
The first media network to give Ocasio-Cortez a platform and extensively cover her campaign and policies wasThe Young Turks (TYT), a left-wing online news program.[4] After her primary win, she quickly garnered nationwide media attention, including numerous articles and TV talk-show appearances. She also drew a great deal of media attention when she and Sanders campaigned forJames Thompson in Kansas in July 2018.[65] A rally inWichita had to be moved from a theater with a capacity of 1,500 when far more people said they would attend. The event drew 4,000 people, with some seated on the floor. InThe New Yorker, Benjamin Wallace-Wells wrote that while Sanders remained "the de-facto leader of an increasingly popular left, [he is unable to] do things that do not come naturally to him, like supply hope." Wallace-Wells suggested that Ocasio-Cortez had made Sanders's task easier, as he could point to her success to show that ideas "once considered to be radical are now part of the mainstream."[66]
Until she defeated incumbentJoe Crowley in the 2018 Democratic primary, Ocasio-Cortez received little coverage on most traditional news media outlets.[67][68]Jimmy Dore interviewed her when she first announced her candidacy in June 2017.[69] After her primary win,Brian Stelter wrote that progressive-media outlets, such asThe Young Turks andThe Intercept, "saw the Ocasio-Cortez upset coming" in advance.[46]Margaret Sullivan wrote inThe Washington Post that traditional metrics of measuring a campaign's viability, like total fundraising, were contributing to a "media failure."[68]
Ocasio-Cortez's campaign was featured on the cover of the June 2018 edition ofThe Indypendent,[70][71] a free New York City-based monthly newspaper. In a tweet, she hailed the cover appearance on "NYC's classic monthly" as a significant breakthrough for her campaign.[72] Otherwise, Ocasio-Cortez was barely mentioned in print until her primary win.[73]
The Young Turks have continued to cover Ocasio-Cortez and defend her from political and media elites who see her as outside the political culture of DC, with occasional criticism on some of her policies.[4]
In November 2018, on the first day of congressional orientation, Ocasio-Cortez participated in a climate change protest outside the office ofHouse Minority LeaderNancy Pelosi.[74] Also, in that month, she backed Pelosi's bid to beSpeaker of the House once the Democratic Party reclaimed the majority on the condition that Pelosi "remains the most progressive candidate for speaker."[75]
Taking office at age 29, Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest woman to serve in the United States Congress.[4][6] She has been noted for her substantialsocial media presence relative to other Congress members.[79]
In January 2019, when Ocasio-Cortez made her first speech on the floor of Congress,C-SPANtweeted the video. Within 12 hours, the video of her four-minute speech set the record asC-SPAN's most-watched Twitter video by a member of the House of Representatives.[83]
In an attempt to embarrass Ocasio-Cortez just before she took office, Twitter user "AnonymousQ" shared a video dating to Ocasio-Cortez's college years: a Boston University student-produced dance video in which she briefly appeared.[84] Many social media users came to her defense, inspiring memes and a Twitter account syncing the footage to songs like "Mambo No. 5" and "Gangnam Style."[85] Ocasio-Cortez responded by posting a lighthearted video of herself dancing toEdwin Starr's "War" outside her congressional office.[84]
When the 116th Congress convened on January 3, 2019, Ocasio-Cortez entered with noseniority but with a largesocial media presence.Axios has credited her with "as much social media clout as her fellow freshman Democrats combined."[79] As of June 2020[update], she had 7.3 millionTwitter followers,[90] surpassing Nancy Pelosi,[91] and several times the population of her congressional district. She had 2.2 millionInstagram followers as of January 2019[92] and 500,000 followers onFacebook as of February 2019.[93] Her colleagues appointed her to teach them social media lessons upon her arrival in Congress.[93] In early July 2019, two lawsuits were filed against her for blockingJoseph Saladino andDov Hikind on Twitter in light of theSecond Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that it was a violation of theFirst Amendment forPresident Trump to block people on Twitter.[94][95] On November 4, 2019, it was announced that they settled the lawsuit with Ocasio-Cortez issuing a statement apologizing for the Twitter block.[96][97]
In an interview with theYahoo! News podcastSkullduggery, Ocasio-Cortez said she had stopped using her private Facebook account and was minimizing her usage of all social media accounts and platforms, calling them a "public health risk".[98][99]
^Almukhtar, Sarah; Bloch, Matthew; Lee, Jasmine C. (September 13, 2018)."New York Primary Election Results".The New York Times.Archived from the original on October 30, 2019. RetrievedJuly 18, 2020.
^Gstalter, Morgan (July 12, 2018)."Ocasio-Cortez accuses defeated Dem of mounting third-party challenge".The Hill.Archived from the original on April 5, 2019. RetrievedJuly 18, 2020.Crowley stated on live TV that he would absolutely support my candidacy, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Thursday. Instead, he's stood me up for all 3 scheduled concession calls... Numerous phone calls have been set up, but Ocasio-Cortez's aides have failed to follow through with providing a phone number, the aide [to Crowley] said.
^Kilgore, Ed (June 26, 2018)."Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Ousts Joe Crowley, a Top House Democrat, in Stunning Upset".New York.Archived from the original on June 27, 2018. RetrievedJune 27, 2018.In a shocker that is already being compared to the 2014 primary loss by then–House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus (the fourth-ranking leadership position among House Democrats), ten-term veteran Joe Crowley has been upset by 28-year-old first-time candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the Bronx-Queens 14th congressional district.
^Tarleton, John; McMullan-Laird, Lydia (June 1, 2018)."Beat The Machine"(PDF).The Indypendent.Archived(PDF) from the original on July 22, 2019. RetrievedJuly 22, 2019.
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