New York Democratic House candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday night congratulated her “sister in service” Ayanna Pressley, a progressive who won her district’s primary in an upset win over longtime incumbent Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass).
Many have already drawn parallels between Pressley’s stunning victory and that of Ocasio-Cortez, another progressive woman who edged out a Democratic establishment figure, Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), in her district’s primary earlier this summer.
{mosads}”Congratulations to my sister in service, @AyannaPressley, on continuing her historic path into Congress tonight,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted following Pressley’s victory. “Let’s push together to make Medicare for All, tuition free college, & living wages a reality in America – all without corporate PAC money.”
She later tweeted a photo of the two that she said was taken “months ago.”
“This photo was taken months ago,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “[Pressley and] I bonded over running while constantly told it’s ‘not our turn,’ that we ‘weren’t ready,’ ‘good enough,’ or ‘experienced’ enough. We kept going anyway.”
“In June, I won my primary,” she added. “Tonight, she won hers. Here’s to November.”
Ocasio-Cortez previously endorsed Pressley, and both of their platforms include single-payer health care and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Pressley during her campaign also joined the increasing number of Democratic candidates who are refusing money from corporate PACs.
Pressley took a page out of Ocasio-Cortez’s playbook as she framed herself as a young woman of color capable of taking on the Democratic establishment in D.C.
Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum also invited comparisons to Ocasio-Cortez with an unexpected win in Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial primary last week.
Ocasio-Cortez at the beginning of August declared that there is nowhere in the U.S. “too red” for progressive candidates to flip.
“We’re not going to beat big money with more big money,” she said at the time. “We’re going to beat big money with big organizing.”
Pressley won her primary despite lagging in the polls and in fundraising. She is likely to become the first black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts.
“We have to be disruptive in our democracy and our policymaking and how we run and win elections,” she said in an interview this summer with The Associated Press. She said Ocasio-Cortez’s victory challenged “narratives about who has a right to run and when, and who can win” in the U.S.