Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) appears in a new video released by Justice Democrats, a far-left group focused on going to war with incumbent Democrats who are not progressive enough.
The opening salvo? An eight-minute video starring Ocasio-Cortez, and calling for a new crop of activists and community organizers to run against the “Democratic machine.”
“If you’re a one-term Congress member, so what?” Ocasio-Cortez, 29, says in the video. “You can make 10 years worth of change in one term if you’re not afraid.”
Justice Democrats, which orchestrated Ocasio-Cortez’s long-shot bid last year against the fourth-ranking House Democrat, Joe Crowley, hopes to replicate its success in other Democratic districts across the country.
Together with Ocasio-Cortez, the group is forcing the Democratic Party to recalibrate, shifting policy conversations leftward in response in the same way the tea party movement dragged Republicans to the right.
Justice Democrats leaders admit the group’s tactics are similar to the tea party, emphasizing less coalition building and more ideological purity.
The groups growing influence has led to a backlash among some congressional Democrats, who are seeking to constrain this anti-establishment era, and fear the groups far-left ideas could tar the party as socialist.
According to The New York Times, some Democrats have privately whispered that Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet-first, ask-questions-later mentality reminds them of President Trump.
“That combat approach is going to upset a lot of people,” said ACLU political director Faiz Shakir, a former senior adviser to Democratic Leaders Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. “What she’s suggesting is the way I’m going to get people is by carrying a stick.”
Many Republicans are downright giddy at the notion that a self-described democratic socialist is driving Democratic policy discussions.
Congressional Republicans saw up close the dangers of having the more staunchly right-wing elements of the Tea Party come to define their tenure in the House majority.
“Whether Democrats like it or not, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is now the face of their party,” said Steven Cheung, a former communications adviser in the Trump White House.
Last cycle Justice Democrats raised $2.4 million, according to FEC filings.
That doesn’t count the nearly $900,000 it helped candidates raise through small-dollar fundraising emails.
Not so long ago, left-wing activists were dismissed as fringe or even kooky when they pressed for proposals to tax the superrich at 70 percent, to produce all of America’s power through renewable resources or to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Then along came Ocasio-Cortez — and her social-media megaphone.
In the months since her election, Ocasio-Cortez has had the uncanny ability for a first-term member of Congress to push the debate inside the Democratic Party sharply to the left, forcing party leaders and 2020 presidential candidates to grapple with issues that some might otherwise prefer to avoid.
In the video, Ocasio-Cortez recounts that her name was submitted to the Justice Democrats by her brother as somebody who should run for office.
“My brother told me he had sent my nomination in the summer, but I was like literally working out of a restaurant then, there’s no way,” said Ocasio-Cortez, a former bartender.
Ocasio-Cortez then explains that Justice Democrats helped push her into running for office by introducing her to other people interested in making political change.
“There’s a lot of people in the Democratic caucus,” she says. “When we are courageous enough to just puncture the silence on an issue, they will start to move.”
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE:
Justice Democrats have said they will support more primary challengers to House incumbents in blue districts in 2020, and have made Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) their first target.
The group have argued that Cuellar, a former chairman of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition, votes with President Trump almost 70 percent of the time, and have labeled him a “fake Democrat.”
Cuellar has said the polling in his district shows that his constituents are “more moderate, conservative Democrats.”
“What happened to the Democratic Party being a tent?” Cuellar asked reporters last week. “I think the goal is to expand Democrats and not go after Democrats.”
The effort to purge a political party by mandating purity usually results in a more exclusive, and less inclusive party.
Newly elected Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) voted with Trump over 60 percent of the time when a member of the House.
But no one would argue that she’s a progressive, who just happens to have the ability to work with Republicans while attracting Independent voters.
Another of the groups prospective targets is Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.).
Rice is a progressive.
She has voted with Trump just 28 percent of the time and cosponsored legislation to slash fossil fuel dependence.
She is popular in her district.
But Justice Democrats still has her in its sights.
“You can tacitly support Medicare for All and a Green New Deal and we still might primary you because there’s energy in the district to find someone more charismatic and compelling who is actually going to be a movement builder,” said Waleed Shahid, communications director for Justice Democrats.
It’s a fight that Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairwoman Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) and other Democratic leaders want to avoid.
“If any of our attention is diverted to primaries it’s not what we want to do,” said Bustos, a moderate Democrat who represents a district that Trump carried. “Henry Cuellar is a hard-working member of Congress. He’s a good man, and we want to make sure he comes back. I hope we don’t have to turn our attention away from what is most important to survive with this fragile majority that we have.”
One of Justice Democrats’ endorsed candidates, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), agreed.
“It is quite inappropriate for groups to decide on whether or not somebody deserves to represent their district. Those decisions need to come from the people that we represent,” Omar said.