NY Democrats line up to primary 'no show' AOC

FPI / February 11, 2020

Former CNBC anchor Michelle Caruso-Cabrera on Monday filed to run for Congress in New York’s 14th district.

Caruso-Cabrera will run as a Democrat and challenge socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the party’s primary.

Caruso-Cabrera supports free markets and is a skeptic of big government. Her 2010 book was titled “You Know I’m Right: More Prosperity, Less Government”.

“I am the daughter and granddaughter of working class Italian and Cuban immigrants,” Caruso-Cabrera said in a statement to CNBC, which first reported her candidacy. “I am so lucky to have had such a wonderful career and I want everybody to have the opportunity that I’ve had. That’s why I’m running.”

Ocasio-Cortez is regarded as one of the most leftwing members of Congress. She has advocated the Green New Deal, endorsed socialist Bernie Sanders for president, and called for “Medicare for All.”

ACO also played a prominent role in the successful attempt to kill a deal to bring Amazon’s second headquarters to a Queens neighborhood bordering the 14th District.

About a dozen candidates, both Democrats and Republicans, have filed to run in November for the 14th District seat.

New York City Council member Fernando Cabrera, who describes himself as a moderate Democrat, is also seeking to oust AOC.

Cabrera told Politico that Ocasio-Cortez has damaged the Democratic Party with her divisiveness. “Only a Democrat is going to be able to defeat her, and it’s going to be a moderate Democrat,” Cabrera said. “She’s a no-show in the district. She hasn’t brought about anything except division within the party.”

Scherie Murray, a New York businesswoman, has filed to run for the seat as a Republican.

“There is a crisis in Queens, and it’s called AOC,” Murray told Fox News. “And instead of focusing on us, she’s focusing on being famous. Mainly rolling back progress and authoring the job-killing Green New Deal and killing the Amazon New York deal.”

In a campaign video, Murray said: “Your representative in Washington chooses self-promotion over service, conflict over constituents, resistance over assistance. Queens and the Bronx needs someone who will create jobs instead of turning them away."

Free Press International