For her national political debut, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez traded the concrete jungle of New York for the golden wheat fields of Kansas.
The bright new face of the left joined the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, a leader of the progressive movement, at rallies in support of two congressional candidates who argue that a leftwing, anti-corporate political message can galvanize Democrats in Republican-held districts crucial to their push to take back the US House of Representatives.
“Oh my goodness gracious,” said Ocasio-Cortez, taking the stage at a packed hall in Wichita on Friday. “And they said [that] what we did in the Bronx, no one would care about it in Kansas.”
Less than a month ago, Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old democratic socialist who was working as a bartender less than a year ago, stunned the political establishment when she beat a 10-term incumbent, Joe Crowley, in a district that includes parts of the Bronx and Queens. With general election victory in November all but certain, she is using her star power to spotlight likeminded candidates around the country.
“What you have shown me is that working people in Kansas share the same values – the same values – as working people anywhere else,” she said. “Wherever there is working class people, there is hope for the progressive movement.”
In Wichita, Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders campaigned for James Thompson, a civil rights lawyer who in 2017 narrowly lost a special election in the fourth congressional district. In the neighboring third, they traveled to Kansas City, for Brent Welder, a labor lawyer and former Sanders delegate who is running in a six-way primary.
Both congressional candidates are running on a Sanders-style platform that includes universal healthcare, tuition-free college and a higher minimum wage. This may be a tough sell in Kansas, which is home to the billionaire Koch brothers, who have spent tens of millions of dollars to promote free-market policies. Donald Trump won the state by more than 20 percentage points.
Yet progressives see opportunities here, pointing to Philadelphia and Omaha, where leftwing candidates have won competitive primaries. And, they argue, in 2016 Sanders won the Democratic caucuses here by more than 30 points.
“I’m not ‘Republican-lite’,” Thompson said, drawing wild applause. “If our state wanted Republican-lite then we would have elected somebody in the past 20 years as a Democrat here ... If a centrist message would have worked, then Hillary Clinton would have won here in 2016.”
Kansas is not the only state that will test that theory. In the coming weeks, Ocasio-Cortez will take her populist pitch to Michigan and Missouri.
“They will see that this thing wasn’t just lightning striking,” said Cori Bush, a nurse and activist whom Ocasio-Cortez will support at a rally in St Louis on Saturday. “By having her here, it will show people locally that this can happen here.”
Inside the Democratic party, Ocasio-Cortez’s rise has been met with a mix of awe and skepticism. The Democratic National Committee chairman, Tom Perez, hailed her as the “future of the party”; the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, dismissed the notion that her victory reflected a broader trend within the party.
Ocasio-Cortez has stumbled. She wrongly claimed the cause of low unemployment in the US was “because everyone has two jobs”. She also sparked fierce criticism for referring to Israel’s “occupation of Palestine”, then admitted she was “not the expert on geopolitics on this issue”.
Then the former senator Joe Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-independent from Connecticut, wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal urging Crowley to mount a third-party challenge. Crowley has said he will not.
“Because the policies Ms Ocasio-Cortez advocates are so far from the mainstream, her election in November would make it harder for Congress to stop fighting and start fixing problems,” the 2000 vice-presidential pick wrote.
And Republicans are watching closely, eager to use her leftwing politics against Democrats in Republican strongholds.
“I can’t think of two people who best exemplify the brand of politics these House candidates are running on than Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez,” said Jesse Hunt, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “Their far-left progressive policy proposals are better suited for liberal enclaves in New York City and Hollywood than Kansas.”
‘I’m so inspired by her’
Among Kansas’ progressive faithful, Ocasio-Cortez was lionized. Kamela Eaton, of Wichita, carried a homemade poster: a sketch of Ocasio-Cortez with the message: “Change is on the horizon”.
“I’m so inspired by her - by her passion and her drive,” Eaton said. “She’s young; she’s a woman of color. She’s just what the party needs.”
Kamela Eaton wants to see a @BernieSanders and @Ocasio2018 2020 ticket pic.twitter.com/d4wOZQELAy
— Lauren Gambino (@laurenegambino) July 20, 2018
In Kansas City, Welder told a sweat-soaked audience her victory was galvanizing leftwing candidates like himself.
“She has become the kind of inspirational leader that people across the country have become desperate for,” he said.
Welder is hoping to replicate Ocasio-Cortez’s victory in a district where Clinton narrowly beat Trump, making it one of the most contested races of the midterms. To win across the country, progressives argue that they must “expand the electorate” by bringing new voters into the political system – as did Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders.
The energy at both rallies in Kansas were a reminder of how popular Sanders remains.
“We must have gotten off at the wrong stop because people told me Kansas was a Republican state,” the senator said, sweeping on to the stage to thunderous applause. “It doesn’t look like it!”
Many supporters wore shirts that said “Hindsight is 2020”. A woman waved a sign that said “Humanity needs Bernie”. A poster taped to a railing heralded a Sanders-Ocasio-Cortez ticket. At least for now, the pair are focused on 2018.
“We won campaigning on Medicare for all, tuition-free public colleges and a green ‘new deal’ for generations to come,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “It is on that bold vision for the future of the United States that we can win back the soul of this nation. And it is going to be every single person in this room knocking on 10, 50, 100 doors apiece that is going to get it done.”
- Additional reporting by Adam Gabbatt