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Whether you love her, or hate her, New York congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a rising national political presence. On network TV, and now, on both U.S. Coasts.
The 28-year-old Democratic Socialist who upset top congressional Democrat Joe Crowley in the June primary appeared at two, large sold-out campaign fundraising appearances in San Francisco.
And thousands more Ocacio fans and/or supporters unsuccessfully tried to book tickets via social media websites, according to multiple reports.
"We need to reclaim this party," Ocasio-Cortez told Californians during her fundraiser stops on Tuesday, July 31, The Mercury News reported here.
Ocasio-Cortez is allied with and endorsed by Cynthia Nixon, who is Gov. Andrew Cuomo's September primary election challenger. Nixon, best known as a "Sex And The City" television star and education activist, trails the governor from New Castle in recent political opinion polls, yet is closing the gap among the Empire State's youngest voters, according to this report by Daily Voice.
Ocasio-Cortez was interviewed by Chris Cuomo on CNN on Wednesday Aug. 8, the day after two of the six candidates she endorsed in Tuesday's primary elections lost. "Americans have the 'sticker shock' of healthcare as it is" when they make their monthly federally-mandated insurance premium payments or get penalized when filing taxes in April.
On the "Cuomo Prime Time" broadcast, Ocasio-Cortez asked why the U.S. can pay for "unlimited war" but not "Medicaid-for-all" or education, as reported here.
Some pundits call Ocasio-Cortez -- "the Bronx girl" who actually grew up in Westchester County -- a bellwether for polling trends in close elections statewide and nationwide.
Ocasio-Cortez was a star student from Yorktown -- an asteroid is named after one of her high school science projects as reported here by Daily Voice) -- before graduating from Boston University as reported here.
As Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez wrote here in this "On Guard" column of the San Francisco Examiner, "Well, surprise surprise, her popularity extends all the way to the West Coast."
Shanti Singh, co-chair of the DSA SF chapter, said her West Coast visit was so popular, they had to move it twice: Once from the Impact Hub to El Rio, and then to Gray Area Grand Theater.
Singh said she can see the appeal, as she herself is inspired to see another 28-year-old woman of color running for office and "kicking keister."
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