With a D+29 partisan lean, New York’s 14th Congressional District hasn’t been represented by a Republican in nearly three decades, and absent some strategic redistricting, it will never be again. Conservative fever dreams of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez facing defeat at the hands of the GOP are just that, nonsensical nonstarters.
But Ocasio-Cortez may finally face a serious possible threat to her seat in Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, a former CNBC correspondent who just announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Congress in the socialist superstar’s district.
As a fellow Latina granddaughter of working-class immigrants, Caruso-Cabrera’s background remarkably matches Ocasio-Cortez’s, rendering the identity politics debate of Democratic primaries all but useless. Caruso-Cabrera is somewhat of a respected celebrity in her own right, an Emmy-award winning international correspondent and a recognized trailblazer for Hispanic representation in the lily-white world of financial journalism. A registered Democrat and longtime social liberal, Caruso-Cabrera authored a book lamenting wasteful spending and government overreach from both political parties, excoriating Republican populists and Democratic socialists a decade before they were ascendant within their parties.
With millions of dollars under her campaign’s belt and the adoration of the national media, Ocasio-Cortez will be hard to beat, regardless of who runs against her. But she only beat lackluster incumbent Joe Crowley by 4,000 votes in an election during which just 13% of registered Democrats voted. Although Ocasio-Cortez maintains favorability among Democrats nationally, both local news stories and at least one district poll indicate that she may be substantially less popular within her district.
Socialists in Seattle and San Francisco may herald Ocasio-Cortez as a hero, but there’s no question that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would like her gone. If Caruso-Cabrera curries favor with the state and national establishment as well as enough of the financial and local media, she could get enough of a fundraising boost to make the primary worth watching. If anyone can do it, it’s a candidate who seems tailor-made to undercut Ocasio-Cortez’s advantages.
