If you're wondering how Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez managed to pull off a stunning defeat of the all-powerful Queens party boss, Congressman Joe Crowley, in Tuesday's Democratic primary, it's worth turning to someone who helped run her field operation: Aaron Taube.
Taube volunteers with the Democratic Socialists of America, which had by his count between 50 and 60 volunteers going door-to-door for the 28-year-old Ocasio-Cortez. They hit a total of 11,300 homes in Queens alone.
He said Ocasio-Cortez's push to #AbolishICE was hugely popular with voters across the strikingly diverse district.
"That was true of people in Spanish-speaking and Bengali-speaking homes in Jackson Heights, and it was true of white progressives in Astoria," he said.
Changing demographics also played a critical role in her win, said John Mollenkopf, a political scientist at CUNY.
"Traditionally the Crowley vote has been centered on the older, white ethnics — Irish, Italians and so on, who've lived in the district — and those groups have been steadily declining over the past 15 years," said Mollenkopf.
Mollenkopf noted the population of white voting-age citizens in the district had declined by nearly a quarter, or 39,000. At the same time, the district had added nearly 27,000 Asian-American citizens of voting age, and more than 44,000 Hispanics. Ocasio-Cortez tapped into their concerns about the Trump administration's hard line immigration policy, as well as rising healthcare costs.
And there was a growing disconnect between the Queens Democratic establishment and the voters the machine relies on to stay in power.
According to Queens Councilman Danny Dromm, the district is experiencing a wave of progressive activism. There's anti-Trump anger, but more locally, outrage over the party's support of Jose Peralta, a state senator who's often caucused with Republicans as part of the breakaway Independent Democratic Conference. Dromm said he communicated the anger to Crowley and other party leaders.
"I did talk with both Congressman Crowley and the leadership of the Queens County Democratic organization to really tell them about this groundswell of progressivism that was occurring here in the district. But it was not listened to, or didn't seem to matter."
Dromm said Ocasio-Cortez may find it hard to unite the district's fractured Democratic coalition, should she win the general election. But he also argued that her example proves change is possible.