'The Democrats are in Turmoil!' Trump celebrates as left wing 28-year-old Bernie supporter wins a shock primary victory over ten-term New York congressman Joe Crowley on night of drama
Associated Press and Emily Crane
Daily Mail
June 27, 2018
President Donald Trump has boasted of celebrating a 'big night' as he relished in a huge Democrat upset that saw 'big hater' and longtime US Rep. Joseph Crowley go down in the primaries to a 28-year-old liberal activist.
Crowley, the number four House Democrat and until Tuesday considered a possible candidate to replace Nancy Pelosi as leader, becomes the first Democratic incumbent to lose this primary season.
The 56-year-old was toppled by underfunded challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the daughter of working-class immigrants who caught fire with the party's left wing.
Ocasio-Cortez, who worked briefly years ago as an aide to Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy and is a Sen. Bernie Sanders supporter, has never held elected office.
Trump was thrilled with Crowley's defeat.
'Wow! Big Trump Hater Congressman Joe Crowley, who many expected was going to take Nancy Pelosi's place, just LOST his primary election. In other words, he's out! That is a big one that nobody saw happening,' Trump tweeted, oddly taking credit for a victory by a candidate more liberal than Crowley.
'Perhaps he should have been nicer, and more respectful, to his President!'
He added: 'The Democrats are in Turmoil! Open Borders and unchecked Crime a certain way to lose elections. Republicans are for Strong Borders, NO Crime! A BIG NIGHT!'
Meanwhile, Crowley told his supporters: 'It's not about me. It's about America. I want nothing but the best for Ms Ocasio-Cortez. I want her to be victorious.'
He later played guitar with a band at his election night gathering and dedicated the first song, Bruce Springsteen's 'Born to Run,' to Ocasio-Cortez.
Crowley's loss echoed across the political world, sending the unmistakable message that lingering divisions between the Democratic Party's pragmatic and more liberal wings may be widening heading into the high-stakes November midterm elections.
It also exposed a generational divide among Democrats still debating their identity in the Trump era.
All in all, Trump had reason to celebrate Tuesday night as all three of his endorsed candidates survived primary challenges that could have embarrassed him and the party.
Those included former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who once branded Trump 'a fraud' but has warmed to the president in the past two years.
None of the day's contests mattered more to Trump than the one in South Carolina. Gov. Henry McMaster, one of the president's earliest and strongest supporters, survived an unusually tough challenge from a political newcomer, self-made Republican millionaire John Warren.
The White House went all-in for the governor in recent days, dispatching the president and the vice president to the state in an effort to prevent a political debacle.
Trump has a mixed track record when campaigning for other candidates: His preferred candidates have suffered stinging losses in Alabama and western Pennsylvania in recent months.
Voters cast ballots across seven states on Tuesday as the 2018 midterm battlefield continues to take shape: South Carolina, New York, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Maryland, Colorado and Utah.
With the November general election a little more than four months away, more than half the states had selected their candidates after the day's final votes were counted.
History suggests that Trump's Republican Party, like the parties of virtually every first-term president dating back to Ronald Reagan in 1982, will suffer losses this fall.
Yet Crowley's loss suggests that Democrats must overcome intraparty divisions if they hope to take control of Congress and key governors' offices nationwide.
In New York, Ocasio-Cortez ran as a working-class daughter of an immigrant, casting Crowley as an elitist out of touch with the community.
'This race is about people versus money. We've got people, they've got money,' Ocasio-Cortez said in biographical web ad. 'Women like me aren't supposed to run for office.'
Trump got more good news elsewhere in New York City as convicted felon Michael Grimm lost his political comeback attempt against the Trump-backed incumbent Rep. Dan Donovan.
'Tremendous win for Congressman Dan Donovan. You showed great courage in a tough race! New York, and my many friends on Staten Island, have elected someone they have always been very proud of. Congratulations!' Trump tweeted.
Grimm had held the Staten Island seat until 2015 when he pleaded guilty to knowingly hiring immigrants who were in the country illegally to work at his Manhattan restaurant and cooking the books to hide income and evade taxes.
Given his political baggage, a Grimm victory would have jeopardized the seat in this fall's general election.
More than 2,000 miles away in deep-red Utah, former Massachusetts Gov. Romney defeated little-known state Rep. Mike Kennedy, who questioned Romney's conservative credentials and ability to work well with the president.
Romney, too, was endorsed by Trump despite his aggressive criticism of Trump before his election.
In a weekend op-ed published in The Salt Lake Tribune, Romney wrote that the Trump administration's policies have exceeded his expectations, but he pledged to 'continue to speak out when the president says or does something which is divisive, racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, dishonest or destructive to democratic institutions.'
Trump tweeted that he looked forward to working with Romney and said 'a great and loving family will be coming to DC.'
Not to be forgotten: races to determine gubernatorial candidates in Maryland, Colorado and Oklahoma.
Former NAACP President Ben Jealous seized the Democratic governor's nomination in Maryland. He would become the state's first African-American governor if he beats Republican incumbent Gov. Larry Hogan this fall.
Former Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson beat former state Sen. Connie Johnson to win the Democratic nomination in the race to be the state's next governor. Oklahoma voters also backed the medicinal use of marijuana despite opposition from law enforcement and business, faith and political leaders.
Democratic US Rep. Jared Polis and Republican state Treasurer Walker Stapleton won their respective party primaries for the Colorado governor's race, setting up a left-versus-Trump showdown as Republicans seek a seat they haven't held in more than a decade.
In Maryland, the State Board of Elections was contacting as many as 80,000 voters whose registration information had not been updated, the result of a computer problem. Voters affected by the problem were asked to cast provisional ballots, which would not be counted until July 5, officials said. They added that the problem was related to a programming error, not infiltration from an outside source.
The most telling test of Trump's influence was in South Carolina, where McMaster -elevated to the state's top office last year when Nikki Haley became U.N. ambassador - had seemed in jeopardy. Two weeks ago, the governor failed to win the GOP primary outright, requiring a runoff election with Warren.
McMaster shocked even his closest advisers when, as lieutenant governor in early 2016, he became the first statewide-elected official in the country to back Trump's White House bid.
And while Trump cheered Crowley's downfall, so did liberal leaders who backed Ocasio-Cortez.
'These results are also a shot across the bow of the Democratic establishment in Washington: a young, diverse, and boldly progressive Resistance Movement isn't waiting to be anointed by the powers that be,' said Matt Blizek, of MoveOn.
Ocasio-Cortez ran a low-budget campaign and was outspent by an 18-1 margin but won the endorsement of some influential groups on the party's far left, including MoveOn.
Born in the Bronx, Ocasio-Cortez said she decided to challenge Crowley to push a more progressive stance on economic and other issues.
She attended Boston University, where she earned degrees in economics and international relations, and also spent time working in the office of the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy.
After graduating, she returned to the Bronx where she became a community organizer. In the 2016 presidential campaign she worked for Sanders.
Among her issues is expanding the Medicare program to people of all ages and abolishing Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. She recently went to Tornillo, Texas, to protest against policies that have separated parents from their children at the southern US border.
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THIS IS ACTUALLY A BIG DEAL
by Bob Walsh
Something truly remarkable happened in New York a couple of days ago. Representative Joe Crowley, a 10-term Democrat from Queens, lost his primary bid to a 28-year old female politic neophyte Marxist.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez kicked Crowley's ass by 15 points. Crowley had run unopposed in the Democrat primary for 14 years. HE is the first Dem to loose in a primary in almost 30 years.
You can bet your bippy that this outcome has the mainstream undercover leftist shitting their shorts. I am sure they LOVE her point of view but realize that it is not an electable position to take, even in Queens. After all the Democrat-Socialist party has gotten to where they are by concealing their true goals and backdooring gains thru the courts. When they wave their Marxist flag in the open, they don't tend to actually get elected.
It will be fun to watch this one in November. .
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