The ‘AOC motion’ expands in NYC with congressional and Meeting wins

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The ‘AOC motion’ expands in NYC with congressional and Meeting wins

The brand new guard additionally consists of Torres, 32, a Metropolis Council member, and Jones, 33, an legal professional — who will make histori



The brand new guard additionally consists of Torres, 32, a Metropolis Council member, and Jones, 33, an legal professional — who will make historical past as they exchange retiring incumbents Jose Serrano and Nita Lowey, each in workplace for greater than 30 years.

“The Bronx’s struggles have been my struggles. Whether or not it’s rising up in public housing, clawing to make ends meet, or as somebody who struggles with despair, this borough is my solely precedence in Congress,” stated Torres, who’s of Afro-Puerto Rican descent and also will be the primary overtly homosexual Latino member of Congress.

Whereas not absolutely aligned with the left flank of the native social gathering, Torres defeated Republican Patrick Delices on Tuesday after besting a discipline of a dozen Democrats — together with Metropolis Council Member Rubén Díaz Sr., who has an extended historical past of anti-gay rhetoric and on Tuesday revealed he voted for Donald Trump. Torres additionally took out a candidate to his left, Samelys Lopez, who was backed by Ocasio-Cortez and the Democratic Socialists of America.

Like Torres, who was raised at a Bronx NYCHA improvement, Jones has mentioned rising up poor because the baby of a single mom.

“Nobody ever pulled me apart within the Democratic social gathering or in workplace and stated you’re going to be the following member of Congress,” he stated at a post-election press convention. “Nobody supplied to mentor me.”

Ocasio-Cortez, for her half, cruised to reelection regardless of a problem from Republican John Cummings that drew thousands and thousands in contributions from across the nation.

On the state degree, a slate of newly-elected Meeting members on the left, a lot of them neighborhood organizers and tenant activists, are hoping to ramp up strain on their fellow Democrats who’ve lengthy dominated the chamber.

“It’s completely going to shake issues up in a critical means,” stated Zohran Mamdani, a socialist housing counselor who defeated Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas in Astoria, Queens.

A high precedence for the expanded rebel faction shall be elevating taxes on the wealthy — one thing many Democrats have been pushing for within the face of a large income shortfall pushed by the coronavirus pandemic, however which Gov. Andrew Cuomo has resisted.

“We made it clear that we had been unabashed socialists,” Mamdani informed POLITICO. “We had been voted in for an explicitly socialist agenda.”

Jessica González-Rojas received a Jackson Heights Meeting seat after defeating Assemblyman Michael DenDekker within the main — changing into the primary particular person of colour to signify a district that’s 60 p.c Latino and 88 p.c nonwhite.

“We are usually youthful, individuals of colour, far more progressive,” she stated of this 12 months’s victors. “It displays a rejection of the established order, machine-style politics that has reigned in Queens for eternity.”

Phara Souffrant Forrest, a working towards nurse and tenant activist, confronted extra of a normal election combat than most as a result of the incumbent she defeated, Walter Mosley, opted to marketing campaign on the Working Households Social gathering line — regardless of being disavowed by the WFP after his main loss. However Forrest received by a three-to-one margin within the Crown Heights district.

Emily Gallagher scored maybe the most important main upset, defeating incumbent Joe Lentol in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. She’ll take over an Meeting seat Lentol’s household has held for 3 generations.

The brand new class can even embrace Marcela Mitaynes, who defeated Assemblyman Felix Ortiz in Sundown Park, and Jenifer Rajkumar, who beat Assemblyman Michael Miller in Queens.

Anna Gronewold contributed to this report.



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