Tough As the Bronx

The Democrats have been dreaming of a secret weapon against Trump − and now they have Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The young woman makes radical demands. But it all depends.

It all started in the deep snow of North Dakota. Shortly after Donald Trump’s election, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez jumped in a car with two friends and drove 1,678 miles west from the Bronx, the poorest district in New York. The destination of the road trip: the Sioux reservation of Standing Rock.

Despite the cold weather, the friends stayed for a week at the reservation in tents, protesting the highly controversial construction of a pipeline through the tribal area. “It was a key experience,” says Ocasio-Cortez.*

A key experience that drove her into politics: a year and a half later, the 28-year-old, who hardly even knew anyone in New York, suddenly became the Democrats’ new star − and their latest hope in the fight against Trump.

At the end of June, Ocasio-Cortez secured the congressional candidacy in her constituency by defeating longtime incumbent Joe Crowley in the primary. She won by 15 percentage points, a sensation. If everything goes smoothly, she will be elected to Congress in November as the youngest elected House member in U.S. history.

Voters, talk show hosts, reporters: suddenly everyone wants to talk to her, shake her hand and pose for selfies with her. The number of written requests alone is in the thousands. “I do my best to answer them all,” she said.*

Ocasio-Cortez’s victory shows just how turbulent U.S. politics is. However, Trump hardly figured in her election campaign; it was more about local problems − poverty, schools and rent. But it is not by accident that she represents the exact opposite of the very white, very old, very masculine and often corrupt guard that Trump propagates. The more Trump supporters consolidate their power, the more motivated underdogs like Ocasio-Cortez become.

She is, at the same time, a shock to the established opposition party’s system: with her uncompromising progressive agenda, this Democratic Socialist suddenly gives the left wing a boost.

For example, last night, she beat Crowley − a party veteran who has been in Congress since 1999 and was a favorite to succeed House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. On the way to her election party in a billiard room in the Bronx, Ocasio-Cortez was so nervous that she did not dare peek at her cell phone. When her victory was announced, she opened her eyes in shock.

A reporter asked her if she could find words after the victory. “No!” exclaimed Ocasio-Cortez. Since then, she has rushed from one interview to the next, is recognized on the street and sees herself quoted in The New York Times − a newspaper that she could not afford before.

Despite all this hype, you still see her often in her regular bodega, one of the mini-supermarkets that characterize the Bronx: “There is nothing better than getting an iced coffee and chatting with the boys at the bar.”*

The Bronx, for a long time the most dangerous district of New York, has shaped her life − and politics. Recently Ocasio-Cortez was standing in front of her house, where she has lived since childhood, when a garbage man drove by and congratulated her from the window.

Her campaign was a grassroots movement for the digital age. Ocasio-Cortez, who studied politics at Boston University, stood at subway entrances and invited neighbors to a coffee party. Her helpers knocked on more than 120,000 doors, often in her company. Additionally, there were hundreds of thousands of text messages and a clever social media campaign.

Her agenda could hardly contradict Trump’s more:

• Free college

• State health insurance

• Abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement

“In a modern, moral, wealthy society,” she says, “no American should be too poor to live.” This sentiment appeals to her constituency, which consists mainly of Latinos and African-Americans. She is also one of the few candidates with a serious climate protection plan.

Her Twitter account (639,000 followers and rising) has become a boxing ring, in which she has to defend herself not only against right-wing incitement but also against the doubts of her own party leadership, whose power structure is being shaken up − at a local and national level.

Are New Times Breaking in New York?

New York has long been governed and represented in Washington by party bigwigs. Crowley’s defeat marks the end of an era. Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has supported Crowley, is suddenly also full of praise for Ocasio-Cortez. It is almost as if he wants to protect himself.

Considering that the left base is in demand nationwide, in the course of the congressional elections in November, Minority Leader Pelosi must fear an internal party revolt. At 78, she belongs to the old generation of politicians but refuses to give up power.

For the time being, Ocasio-Cortez is enjoying her fame. Last week she was invited to “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” She waved to the audience like an excited teenager. What do you have to say to Donald Trump, asked Stephen Colbert. She grinned. “I don’t think he knows how to deal with a girl from the Bronx.”

*Editor’s note: The original quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.