ANN ARBOR, Michigan — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez compared Jesse Jackson’s 1984 stab at the presidency to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s uphill battle against Joe Biden to secure the 2020 Democratic nomination.
“We have a choice to make. In November, we will do everything we can to defeat that margin of despair. The question is, how? Will we defeat it by going back to how things were, or will we defeat it by fighting for working people?” the New York Democrat said in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Sunday, drawing a contrast between Sanders and rival Biden.
Ocasio-Cortez, a high-profile supporter of Sanders, introduced the Vermont senator at the University of Michigan, nestled in a must-win state for the 2020 candidate during Tuesday’s round of primaries if he wants to stay in the race for the White House.
During her speech, she reiterated parts of Jackson’s famous “David and Goliath” address, which called for a “new course.” She compared Sanders’s supporters to “David,” while the fossil fuel industry, so-called Big Pharma, and money in politics were examples of “Goliath.”
On Sunday morning, the Sanders campaign unveiled Jackson’s endorsement, and the reverend joined Sanders at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Ocasio-Cortez said that evening, the pair both built “a Rainbow coalition of everyday Americans to fight for our common cause,” listing economic and racial justice, as well as human rights. She added their wins in their respective primaries caused “the powerful and monied and conservative parts of our politics” to “scramble.”
