Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Asks Buffalo To Elect ‘Badass’ India Walton As Mayor

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Saturday referred to as for Buffalo residents to vote for Democratic mayoral nominee India Walton at a packed rally, declaring a win for Walton essential for the progressive motion and even American democracy.

“Are you ready to elect one of the most badass mayors in the United States?!” Ocasio-Cortez requested the gang at a theater in downtown Buffalo.

Walton, who calls herself a democratic socialist and can be Buffalo’s first girl mayor, defeated four-term Mayor Byron Brown within the Democratic main in June.

But Brown, a centrist Democrat, is mounting a well-funded write-in marketing campaign for the Nov. 2 common election.

Ocasio-Cortez, one other political neophyte who defeated an entrenched incumbent in a Democratic main, forged Walton on Saturday as the newest in a string of rebel progressive campaigns that started with Ocasio-Cortez’s June 2018 victory. She recalled what number of business-friendly Democrats declared her win a “fluke,” however at the moment are pouring assets into defeating Walton.

“Not so much of a fluke anymore is it?” she stated.

Ocasio-Cortez emphasised, nevertheless, {that a} Walton victory would additional profit the progressive trigger by displaying progressives’ capacity to competently govern in govt positions, notably within the form of “post-industrial city” the place the left has but to achieve as a lot traction.

“It is not enough for us to have victories in legislative bodies,” Ocasio-Cortez stated. “We need to show that we can execute. We need to show that we can do the damn thing. We need to show that we can govern in an executive position.”

Later in her remarks, Ocasio-Cortez accused centrist Democrats — who typically complain about progressives not rallying behind the get together’s candidates — of undermining Democrats’ struggle in opposition to the “fascist threat” current within the ranks of the Republican Party.

“Any Democrat right now that is trying to establish a precedent of not uniting behind the party’s nominee is playing a dangerous game with our democracy,” she stated. “If you, especially as an elected official ― as a Democrat and elected official ― try to go out and undermine your party’s nominee, how can you ever turn around and ask people to support you when you are [the nominee]?”

Ocasio-Cortez additionally accused Walton’s detractors of unfairly smearing her as a result of she is a Black girl. (Brown is a Black man.)

“I am sick of a Democratic Party that says, ‘Black women are the backbone,’ but they’re not the front,” Ocasio-Cortez stated.

Walton spoke earlier than Ocasio-Cortez took the ground, focusing her speech on her platform of enhancing entry to inexpensive housing and well being care, and rising union jobs in Buffalo.

“A vote for India Walton is a vote for accountability. A vote for India Walton is a vote for us,” Walton stated.

In addition to Ocasio-Cortez, a bunch of labor union leaders and progressive New York elected officers spoke in help of Walton, together with New York state Senate Democratic Majority Leader Mike Gianaris and former gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon.

Following the rally, Walton, Ocasio-Cortez and the opposite Democratic elected officers led rallygoers to forged their ballots for Walton on the primary day of early voting.

Brown takes credit score for reinforcing personal real-estate growth within the metropolis, particularly in Buffalo’s downtown space, and reigniting inhabitants progress within the metropolis.

Walton and her supporters, nevertheless, argue that Brown has favored well-connected pursuits on the expense of Buffalo’s predominantly Black and impoverished East Side.

“A lot of what India is proposing would help the people I work with ― specifically, the working poor,” stated Justin Haag, a social employee who attended the Saturday rally.

Leighton Jones, a well being care employee, was on the rally as a result of he believes that Brown has “been in office for way too long.”

Some political observers have questioned whether or not internet hosting Ocasio-Cortez is actually useful to Walton, because the left-leaning voters who admire Ocasio-Cortez are seemingly already in Walton’s nook.

But Buffalonians at Saturday’s rally had been excited to listen to from her and consider her presence will make a distinction.

“There’s a bunch of people who would not be coming out if not for AOC,” stated Gabriella Hall, a University of Buffalo scholar.