Pelosi says Ocasio-Cortez win shouldn’t be ‘viewed as something’ larger

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday said Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s surprising primary win over longtime Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) should not be viewed as a larger issue within the Democratic Party. 

“They made a choice in one district. So let’s not get yourself carried away as an expert on demographics and the rest of that,” Pelosi told reporters at a news conference.

“Within the caucus or outside the caucus, we are … again, we have an array of genders, generations, geography, and there is opinion in our caucus, and we’re proud of that,” Pelosi added.

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She noted that Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old democratic socialist who ran to the left of Crowley, is from a “very progressive district in New York” while noting that Crowley is a progressive but Ocasio-Cortez is “more left than” the congressman she defeated.

“The fact that in a very progressive district in New York it went more progressive than … well, Joe Crowley is a progressive, but she’s more left than Joe Crowley, is about that district. It is not to be viewed as something that stands for anything else.”

Ocasio-Cortez was Crowley’s first primary challenger in 14 years and stunned the lawmaker once thought to be a future candidate for House Speaker.

Pelosi said the party is “particularly excited that so many women are running across the country,” noting that when she “came to Congress usually people had raised their families or done something else before they came.” 

Ocasio-Cortez earlier on Wednesday told CNN it was too early to commit to a potential Speaker, saying Democrats “need to just focus on winning in November first.”