Joe Crowley discussed on Saturday the best time to defeat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the socialist who pulled off one of the biggest upsets in modern Democratic Party history when she defeated him in a primary contest last year.
In a conversation that focused on the 2020 presidential election, Crowley, who served 10 terms in Congress before his defeat, said the election will also be the 29-year-old’s toughest challenge and would not dismiss the possibility of running for office again.
“I don’t have plans to challenge at this point in time,” Crowley, 57, said when asked about 2020 during a Fox News interview with Neil Cavuto.
“I do think that she’s probably most vulnerable in a first reelection,” he said, adding that Ocasio-Cortez has “become a national figure, an international figure in so many ways and that bodes well for her, I think, in terms of reelection.”
Asked if he thinks Ocasio-Cortez will be challenged for the Democratic nomination in the New York City district that includes parts of the Bronx and Queens, Crowley said, “I suspect she probably will, but I don’t have certitude on that.”
There has been chatter about a primary challenge to Ocasio-Cortez. Earlier this year, soon after the freshman congresswoman was sworn in, The Hill reported that an unnamed lawmaker has been privately encouraging the New York delegation to recruit a local politician to challenge Ocasio-Cortez in 2020.
Ocasio-Cortez shot back on Twitter, saying the comments show how some members of Congress are out of touch. “That broken mentality, that public office is something you wait in line for, instead of earning through hard organizing, is exactly what voters want to change,” she tweeted. “Shows you how disconnected some folks here are.”
During their primary contest in 2018, Ocasio-Cortez ran a grassroots campaign and dubbed Crowley a “corporate Democrat” who took money from special interests. After losing his seat, Crowley headed to K Street, joining Squire Patton Boggs, one of the largest law and lobbying firms in Washington.
A recently released book said Crowley, who was widely considered to be then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s successor within the caucus, did not even use his entire arsenal to put a stop to Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 challenge. “Crowley had plenty of fodder he could’ve used against Ocasio-Cortez, but his top New York campaign operatives decided to take the punches and not hit back,” said the book, titled The Hill To Die On: The Battle for Congress and the Future of Trump’s America. “It wasn’t just that Crowley didn’t want to go dirty; he thought it would be a sign of weakness in D.C. if he was seen in a tight race against Ocasio-Cortez. He was supposed to be the next Democratic leader, not someone who had to fight for reelection.”
Ocasio-Cortez has become a star in the party, championing liberal policy ideas that include the Green New Deal and steep taxes on the rich that aligns her with the likes of Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. She has also occasionally butted heads with Democratic Party leadership and created a powerful social media presence with which she speaks directly to her constituency and calls out critics.
Although polling in her 14th Congressional District of New York shows a solid support base, approval of some of Ocasio-Cortez’s ideas and actions, including her opposition to a now-dead deal between New York City and Amazon, is not so high.
Crowley said he wants Ocasio-Cortez to “perform well” for his former constituency, but also dismissed the notion that the majority of his old constituency believe in her ideals. “I don’t believe that my district is a socialist district. l don’t believe that my district believes in democratic socialism,” he said.
