This portrait of a diverse electorate lifting Ocasio-Cortez to victory contrasts starkly with the prevalent media narrative, which attributes Ocasio-Cortez’s win to demographic factors alone. To myriad pundits, the explanation for her success is simple: The district is increasingly populated by Latinos and other nonwhite voters, and they chose Ocasio-Cortez because they simply did not want a white man like Joe Crowley representing them.
“You can also see that most of her votes, the strongest vote support, came from areas like Astoria in Queens and Sunnyside in Queens and parts of Jackson Heights that, number one, were not predominantly Hispanic, so they’re a more mixed population, and are areas where — this is kind of a term of art — are in the process of being gentrified, where newer people are moving in,” said Romalewski.
Indeed, her ideas — like establishing a single-payer health care system, tuition-free college, a foreign policy that puts human rights first, or abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — along with her dogged campaigning, were the engine which motivated that army and powered the upset.
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