Democrats just had their Eric Cantor moment.
That is to say, a rising member of the party’s House leadership team found himself on the wrong side of a shocking primary upset on Tuesday, losing to a candidate more closely aligned with hardliners in the base. Indeed, the parallels between Rep. Joe Crowley’s, D-N.Y., loss and Cantor’s abound.
Both men’s opponents benefited from energy whipped up by surging movements hatched early in the tenure of polarizing presidents — the Tea Party in Cantor’s case, the Resistance in Crowley’s. Both were members of House leadership and both were considered members of their party’s establishment. Both had a massive cash advantage over their opponents. Observers failed to see either upset coming. And if Crowley’s margin of defeat holds steady, both incumbents will have lost by double digits.
But parallels are harder to come by when comparing the victors — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who beat Crowley, and Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., who beat Cantor. (Amusingly, Ocasio-Cortez once compared herself to Brat.)
Brat ran to Cantor’s right, to be sure, but as Vox reported, “What was most exciting for progressives is the degree to which Ocasio-Cortez ran to Crowley’s left.” (Emphasis added.)
That “degree” is severe — Ocasio-Cortez is a socialist. She is literally a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. She campaigned on Medicare-for-all, “housing for all,” abolishing ICE, an assault weapons ban, ending private prisons, a federal jobs guarantee, and more. And running to Crowley’s Left isn’t easy — despite his establishment credentials, he’s fairly progressive. His ability to tread the line is partially why Crowley was considered the top contender for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s, D-Calif., job should an opportunity have presented itself.
A 28-year-old socialist just toppled the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, a party leader who had been in Congress since 1999. Like Cantor’s race, Tuesday’s upset might not mean much to people outside of the district, but it’s sure to reverberate in Washington for years to come.
