美国国家公共电台 NPR House Democrats Reeling After Crowley Upset By Long-Shot Challenger

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Joe Crowley started the day Tuesday on a short list of Democrats who could someday be speaker of the House. By the end of the day, he had lost his primary to a 28-year-old first-time candidate. She is a Democratic socialist named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. NPR's Kelsey Snell reports Democrats and their leaders are grasping for answers about what this might mean for their party.

KELSEY SNELL, BYLINE: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez knew from the start that her campaign to unseat the fourth-highest-ranking Democrat in the House was disruptive.

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ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Women like me aren't supposed to run for office.

SNELL: National Democrats have spent millions across the country to make sure progressives who couldn't win in competitive districts didn't survive their primaries. But she made a powerful case for herself in an immigrant-heavy part of New York that includes Queens and the Bronx.

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OCASIO-CORTEZ: A New York for the many is possible. It's time for one of us.

SNELL: She campaigned on issues like Medicare for all and abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, all issues that national Democrats and leaders like Crowley were trying to avoid. Her success is reviving criticism that House Democratic leaders are out of step with their party as it moves further to the left. It's a characterization that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi mocks.

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NANCY PELOSI: Well, I'm female. I'm progressive; I'm (laughter) - and the rest. So what's your problem (laughter)?

SNELL: Pelosi told reporters Wednesday that she is certain that progressive politics and democratic socialism in particular are not ascendant in her party. Like most other House Democratic leaders, Pelosi says she believes that Ocasio-Cortez represents one part of a broader mix of a kind of big-tent Democratic party, one where far-left progressives and moderates can comfortably coincide. That may be possible, but Crowley's loss on Tuesday is reviving old calls for Pelosi and other leaders to defend their credentials.

RUBEN GALLEGO: Whoever's running for leadership is going to have to justify their existence. They're going to have to explain why they are going to represent this caucus and what they're going to do to actually, you know, be a leader.

SNELL: That's Arizona Democrat Ruben Gallego. He helped lead a group of House Democrats last year who supported Ohio progressive Tim Ryan to unseat Pelosi as House Democratic leader. At the time, they argued that Pelosi and other senior Democrats have been in power too long and have lost touch with the demands of the party. Some say Pelosi in particular is a liability for other Democrats because she has become so polarizing. Pelosi kept her job, but the party-wide shakeup was already underway thanks to Bernie Sanders. Jeff Weaver, Sanders' presidential campaign manager in 2016, says Sanders' signature issues like Medicare for all and tuition-free college helped push the party to the left.

JEFF WEAVER: Many of these issues were considered fringe issues, and now they are mainstream issues. And we take for granted that there are - of course are legions of Democratic candidates running on those platforms.

SNELL: But there are plenty of Democrats who say what happened in New York is just what happens in a liberal bastion in one of the most liberal cities in America. Many of Pelosi's top deputies like California Congresswoman Linda Sanchez say the key to winning and keeping seats in this election is finding the right candidates for the right districts.

LINDA SANCHEZ: I don't think you can speak with any certainty and make blanket statements about every district in the United States. I mean, every district is different. I think we do well when we have candidates that match the districts that they represent.

SNELL: For now, House Democrats say they're still reeling from Crowley's loss and trying to figure out what comes next. They're not ready to say who should be the leader of their party or how they'll define their platform next year. Cedric Richmond, the Louisiana Democrat who heads the Congressional Black Caucus, says the focus for all Democrats needs to be on winning at least 218 House seats in November, enough to win back control of the House.

CEDRIC RICHMOND: If the speaker's a Republican, who gives a crap? So the truth of the matter is what we should be fighting for is getting to 218.

SNELL: He may be OK to wait to talk about leadership in the fall, but other young Democrats may not want to wait so long. Kelsey Snell, NPR News, the Capitol.