Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., on Friday put her Election Day victory and other progressive Democrats’ wins on the same level as other watershed moments in U.S. history, including the signing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the moon landing.
While speaking at a Sunshine Movement press conference in Washington Friday morning, Ocasio-Cortez boasted about her achievement while asking House Democrats to create a select committee for a “Green New Deal” in the next Congress.
“This is not just about a clean new deal. This is about a new deal for the United States of America,” the incoming congresswoman said. “Because in every moment when our country has reached the depths of darkness, in every moment when we were at the brink, at the cusp of an abyss and we did not know if we would be capable of saving ourselves, we have. We’ve done it. We’ve dug deep and we’ve done what we thought was impossible.”
“We went to the moon. We electrified the nation,” she added. “We established civil rights. We enfranchised the country. We digged deep and we did it. We did it when no one else thought that we could. That’s what we did when so many of us won an election this year.”
Twenty-five incoming House members identified themselves as progressive Democrats. Four represent districts that President Trump won in 2016.
Democrats are in the process of deciding on a House speaker and setting the party’s agenda. Ocasio-Cortez wants to set up a temporary committee that would focus on climate issues.
