At a campaign rally in Queens on Saturday afternoon, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) presidential bid.
Watch the endorsement here:
Before unseating longtime Democratic representative Joe Crowley in the 2018 midterm elections, Ocasio-Cortez worked as an organizer on Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. Three years later, as one of the stars of the Democratic party, she is delivering a key endorsement to Sanders as he gets back on the campaign trail after suffering a heart attack earlier this month.
In the lead up the “Bernie’s Back” rally in Long Island City, Sanders called Ocasio-Cortez “one of the great political phenomenons in recent American history” in an interview with NY1.
“This is a young woman who a year ago nobody knew who she was. And in one year, in the United States Congress she has been a leader on major issue after major issue, including the Green New Deal, including issues of housing, including issues of addressing the crisis of student debt,” he said. “So she is really an inspiration to people not only in New York but all over this country and I’m very, very proud that she is now a part of our campaign.”
People started lining up for 1 P.M. rally early Saturday morning.
Amateur footage of the scene moments before the start of Sanders’s return rally (feat. AOC). pic.twitter.com/mA4JVg4qng
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) October 19, 2019