Ocasio-Cortez fundraises for only House Dem to endorse her primary bid

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is fundraising for the only House Democrat who backed her primary bid against Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.).

Ocasio-Cortez urged her supporters in an email to donate to freshman Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a Bay Area liberal who endorsed both Ocasio-Cortez and Crowley in the New York primary.

Ocasio-Cortez ended up beating Crowley — the No. 4 House Democrat who had ambitions of being Speaker — in a massive political upset last Tuesday, sending shockwaves through Washington and exposing divisions in the Democratic Party.

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“Before we won our primary on Tuesday, only ONE member of Congress acknowledged my existence: Ro Khanna,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “For us to turn Congress around, we need to support and expand that movement. That’s why … I’m going to ask you to give (if you can) to Ro’s and my campaign.”

Khanna, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, took some heat for his dual endorsement.

But the victory of Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old Latina who describes herself as a democratic socialist, has fueled energy on the left and encouraged progressives like Khanna to push for more representation at the leadership table.

“Even during the darkest days of our republic, our founders held out hope. Tonight, on the day when our Supreme Court upheld the travel ban, that light emerged,” Khanna tweeted after the primary. “Congratulations @Ocasio2018, I look forward to working with you in Congress.”

Ocasio-Cortez made rejecting corporate PAC money a major part of her upstart congressional campaign.

Like Ocasio-Cortez, Khanna also unseated a House Democrat in 2016 and refuses to take any corporate PAC money.

“We’re doing this without the help of corporate PACs or shady special interests, but we don’t need their help if we have YOU,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “Winning this primary is not the end — it’s the beginning.”

“We have our work cut out for us,” she added. “But every dollar we raise in the wake of this victory means we’ll have even more power and momentum for the general election.”