8 THE QUEENS COURIER • JUNE 28, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
A STUNNING UPSET
Ocasio-Cortez reflects on big win over incumbent Crowley
BY JENNA BAGCAL AND
ROBERT POZARYCKI
editorial@qns.com / @QNS
After pulling off one of the biggest
political upsets in New York City history
on Tuesday night, Alexandria Ocasio-
Cortez made sure her voters got their
share of the credit.
“Every single person out here this evening
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changed America tonight,” said
Ocasio-Cortez. “The message that we
sent the world tonight is that it’s not
okay to put donors before your community,”
she added in her impassioned victory
speech.
Following her victory, QNS caught up
with Ocasio-Cortez as she celebrated with
a roomful of supporters shouting “AOC”,
which are the candidate’s initials. Dozens
of volunteers and supporters from both
of the boroughs represented by Ocasio-
Cortez gathered at Park Billiards Cafe
and Sports Bar in the Bronx.
The candidate reflected on what
this win meant for the constituency
in NY-14.
“I hope what it means is that we
have leadership that is committed
to grassroots change that is consistently
serving and leading the community,
that a voice feels connected
and in touch, that is always serving
the needs of our constituents, and
listening to our constituents needs as
seriously as possible,” Ocasio-Cortez
told QNS.com. “I think what it really
means is refreshing democracy in New
York City, in Queens, in the Bronx, in the
state and the country.”
With 96.1 percent of the precincts
reporting, according to
the New York City
Board of Elections,
O c a s i o - C o r t e z
has 15,897 votes
(57.30 percent) to
Crowley’s 11,761
(42.39 percent).
It was a stunning
defeat for
C r o w l e y ,
w h o
heads the
Q u e e n s
C o u n t y
Democratic Party, is chair of
the House Democratic Caucus
and had been rumored to
be among the potential
replacements to Nancy
Pelosi as leader of the
Democrats on Capitol
Hill.
Crowley conceded defeat
in a statement received by
The Courier at 10:17 p.m
on Tuesday: “It has been
the honor of a lifetime to
represent Queens and the
Bronx. I am proud of the race
we ran and, more importantly,
proud of
all of the work
we’ve done to
advance this
c o m m u n i -
ty. I want to
congratulate
Ms. Ocasio-
Cortez on
her victory
tonight.
I look forward
to
supporting her and all Democrats this
November. The Trump administration is
a threat to everything we stand for here
in Queens and the Bronx, and if we don’t
win back the House this November, we
will lose the nation we love. This is why
we must come together. We will only
be able to stop Donald Trump and the
Republican Congress by working together,
as a united Democratic Party.”
Alisha Giampola, a Sunnyside resident
and volunteer for Ocasio-Cortez’s
campaign, became inspired by the candidate’s
grassroots values and decided
to become a volunteer. She described
the victory as both “expected and unexpected.”
“All of us have so much faith in this
campaign, and have been working hard
and are so excited to be here today. But
to be perfectly honest, just from a human
perspective, I think the fact that it’s actually
happening is a little bit unbelievable,
just because the odds were so great and
the mountain felt really hard to climb,”
said Giampola.
She shared that what struck her the
most about Ocasio-Cortez was how she
always spoke about the constituents rather
than about herself while campaigning.
“The first thing that impressed me
about Alexandria was at the house
party that she came to. I didn’t know
her at all, I didn’t know her platform
yet. She was coming just to speak to
us as constituents. When she came to
speak to us, the first thing that I noticed
was how humble she was and how she
always spoke about the campaign as an
‘us’ campaign and not a ‘me’ campaign,”
said the volunteer.
During the celebration, Ocasio-Cortez
also encouraged her volunteers to focus
on the other primaries that were coming
up in November.
“We should be electing a caucus of people
on these beliefs,” she said.
One observer of the election, former
Borough President Claire Shulman, said
that Ocasio-Cortez ran a professional
campaign. She also lamented Crowley's
defeat as something of a "Greek tragedy,"
noting that he had been in line to potentially
become the next Speaker of the
House, only to let it slip away.
Two Queens incumbents win nominations their districts once more
EMILY DAVENPORT
ultimately adding up to 9,803 votes. He
maintained a huge lead over his challengers,
Despite the major upset in the race for
Carl Achille and Mizan Choudhury,
NY-14, two Queens incumbents had no
who finished the night with 1,163 and
problem winning their primaries for their
1,063 votes respectively.
districts.
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney led
With 99% of precincts reporting,
a closer race for the 12th Congressional
Congressman Gregory Meeks won
District, but still ended up on top.
the primary for the 5th Congressional
Maloney, who had 24,223 votes, brought
District race with 81.5% of the votes,
down challenger Suraj Patel, who finished
the night with 16,995 votes, leading
to a 58.8%/41.2% split in Maloney’s
favor.
“Thank you to the voters for honoring
me with the Democratic nomination
for #NY12,” Maloney tweeted following
the primary. “I will continue doing all I
can to fight back against Trump’s hateful
agenda and make sure we take back the
House in November!”
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