Evizda

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the popular freshman Democrat from New York whose first year in office has shaken up the American political establishment, announced Friday that her re-election bid raised $1 million in January, a huge amount of money for a congressional campaign.

“That’s not normal for the House,” tweeted The Intercept‘s Ryan Grim of the congresswoman’s haul. 

In early January, Ocasio-Cortez announced she was starting a political action committee aimed at supporting progressive candidates for Congress after a year of attacks on primary challengers to incumbents from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). As Common Dreams reported, the DCCC established a so-called “blacklist” banning vendors who work with primary challengers from DCCC-approved clients in March 2019.

The fallout from that decision—and the support for anti-choice, right-wing incumbents like Reps. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) from party leaders despite both men having primary election challengers more aligned with the party’s values—has exposed divisions in the party between the old guard and a progressive upswell from the grassroots.

The frustration was noted by progressive Democrat Eva Putzova, who is running to unseat incumbent Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D-Ariz.).

“The DCCC loves to tip the scales,” said Putzova.