Former Bernie Sanders campaign organizer Alexandra Rojas thinks Democrats will more openly embrace progressive policies.
Rojas, who is the executive director of Justice Democrats, says Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s shocking win over incumbent Democrat Joe Crowley is part of a growing movement within the party as a whole.
“We have people like Brent Welder (D) and James Thompson (D) who are running in Kansas who are running on the same platforms and believe in the same things as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez believes in,” Rojas said.
But Democratic socialism hasn’t exactly been viewed in a favorable light.
Throughout his 2008 presidential and 2012 presidential campaigns, conservatives repeatedly dismissed President Obama as a socialist for his stances on progressive issues like universal health care.
In 2014, one GOP congressman even went so far as to call then-President Obama a “Socialist dictator.”
Rojas attributes this much to the change in public sentiment around Democratic socialism and more progressive policies.
“Americans are really hurting and they really want something different and the policies we’re espousing aren’t talking about isms, they’re talking about saving healthcare – actually keeping families together,” Rojas told Hill.TV.
— Tess Bonn
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