Story by Debralee Santos and Gregg McQueen
Photos by Corey Torpie
“This evening changed America.”
She spoke, fittingly, from the bar, standing atop a cluster of tables and framed from behind by flickering television screens and fully stocked liquor shelves.
Just a year ago, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Parkchester resident, Democratic Socialist and organizer, was tending bar to make ends meet.
Now, on Tues., Jun. 26th, the first-time candidate had just been declared the winner of the Democratic primary for the 14th Congressional district – accomplishing what is near-impossible in New York politics: toppling an incumbent.
That this officeholder was the so-called “King of Queens,” Joseph Crowley, who’d first been elected to Congress in 1998 and had faced no primary challenge in 14 years, made the 28-year-old Boricua’s triumph national news.
And she was celebrating with supporters at a bar in the Bronx.
Read more: Lady Victorious | Bronx Free Press
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