Politics

Socialists Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez To Campaign With Each Other In Kansas

Getty Images/ Alex Edelman and Spencer Platt

Robert McGreevy Contributor
Font Size:

Self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist Congressional candidate and media darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will travel with Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to Kansas to campaign for two Democratic candidates, according to The Washington Post.

While Bernie Sanders has been a national figure since he ran for president in 2016, the upstart Ocasio-Cortez has only recently been thrust into the national spotlight after a shock victory over longtime incumbent Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley in the primary for New York’s 14th Congressional District.

Ocasio-Cortez, who calls herself a Democratic Socialist, has rifled controversy from both Republicans and her own party alike. Many Democrats worry that she will pull the party too far to the left, and others have expressed concerns that she will divide the often rudderless party even further.

“She’s carrying on and she ain’t gonna make friends that way,” said Democratic New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell, according to The Hill.

But criticism hasn’t seemed to slow down the 28-year-old upstart.

“The political revolution is alive and well in Kansas,” said Ocasio-Cortez through a press release.

Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Sanders have both been champions of what they call “progressive values” such as increasing the minimum wage and universal healthcare. (RELATED: OCASIO-CORTEZ THINKS THERE SHOULD BE SOMETHING LIKE A HOUSE PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS) 

“Candidates who run on a progressive agenda can and will win,” said Sanders to The Washington Post.

The two will be campaigning in Wichita on July 20 for James Thompson who is running for the seat in Kansas’ 4th Congressional District, and then they will head to the Kansas City area to stump for Brent Welder who is running in the 3rd district.

James Thompson nearly won the special election to fill Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s seat in 2017, coming just 7 percentage points shy of Republican Ron Estes in a district that Donald Trump captured by a whopping 27 percent in 2016, according to Politico.

Brent Welder is a former Bernie Sanders delegate who had to apologize for trying to politicize and raise money from the deaths of two sheriff’s deputies in June, according to the Kansas City Star. He’s running against six other Democrats in a district that Hillary Clinton narrowly took in 2016.