Article from Reason by Zuri Davis.

On Tuesday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pulled off a major victory over top House Democrat and 10-year-incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley (D–N.Y.). While the 28-year-old’s age, gender, and ethnicity were of much interest to those watching the 14th Congressional District race, there’s one thing about Ocasio-Cortez that particularly stands out—she’s a bona fide Socialist.

Ocasio-Cortez worked for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D–Mass.) and was an organizer for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) during his 2016 presidential campaign. But in a Monday interview with The Cut, Ocasio-Cortez reconfirmed that she was a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

For Ocasio-Cortez, changing the perceptions around socialism meant focusing on policy: “You can call that whatever you want to call that. Legislatively, when I knock on a door, the way that it looks like is improved and expanded Medicare for all; it looks like housing is a human right; it looks like a federal jobs guarantee that guarantees a $15 minimum wage, paid family and sick leave, and health care. It looks like tuition-free public college, it looks like the exploration and expansion of federal student-loans forgiveness.”

Ocasio-Cortez added that her political affiliations were a “non-conversation” for voters. The election results from Tuesday night would seem to agree with her, as she led her opponent 58 percent to 42 percent. As for the legislative interests she represents, Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign website listed issues such as universal healthcare, stronger gun laws, and free college.

Read the entire article at Reason.

Image Credit: By David Shankbone (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons