No Coat Tails - Candidates AOC Stumps For Lose Big in Election Few Knew About
Outside an active polling site in Throggs Neck, AOC staffers adorned the fence with campaign posters as they handed out election literature, buttons and t-shirts. Then Rep. Cortez (Center) gave a campaign speech for assembly candidate Jonathan Soto (Right). All while parents either picked up their kids from school or tried to vote at the site. -Photo by David Greene |
Bowman Left in Lurch on Election Nite - AOC is No Show at Event
By David Greene
Bronx Voice
June 26, 2024
BRONX - In a Primary race few in the Bronx knew about, the borough made national headlines with the defeat of Congressman Jamaal Bowman. Both the Squad member and Bronx Assembly insurgent candidate Jonathan Soto were heavily endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and both were easily defeated.
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Congressman Jamaal Bowman speaks to a handful of residents and members of the media outside of the Susan E. Wagner Preschool on East 229 Street in Edenwald on June 25, 2024. -Photo by David Greene
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AOC went on to easily win despite the low voter turn out of some 23,000 voters in the Bronx and Queens compared to the 75,000 that voted in Westchester and the Bronx for the Bowman race. Reports from voting sites throughout the Bronx on election day reported scarce voter turnout.
Some residents told the Bronx Voice that they did not know there was a primary or that AOC was on the ballot. They saw plenty of Bowman commercials but did not know there was a primary in their district.
“I saw one ad to vote and early voting and it was put up on a bus shelter on Saturday. And it was in Spanish,” said one Pelham Bay resident talking about the lone Crosby Avenue ad. “I certainly didn’t see any ads in businesses for AOC or for whatever that guy she ran against name is.”
Asked if he knew about the Primary would he have voted for AOC, the resident let out a Bronx Cheer- commonly referred to as a “raspberry.”
On Primary day with the polls open, AOC held a campaign speech outside a polling site in Throggs Neck. The congresswoman, her supporters and the media outnumbered the voters at that site for most of the day.
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| AOC campaign staffers take over the front of an active Throggs Neck polling site on Primary Day. They adorned the outside fence with AOC posters, and handed out literature, campaign buttons and t-shirts. -Photo by Tina Gesslein |
The low turnout was not surprising given the low turnout for a get out the vote rally that was not held in either Bowman or AOC’s district but rather in the South Bronx.
A last-minute rally with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders at St. Mary’s Park was not enough to help Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-16) hold onto his seat as he lost to current Westchester County Executive George Latimer, in a race that saw Super PAC’s spending of upwards of $20 million on commercials that ran non-stop for the Latimer campaign.
The unofficial numbers put Latimer ahead with nearly 60% of the votes.
On June 25, hours before the last votes were cast, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-14) was scheduled to join Bowman in the Edenwald section but was a no show. Bowman arrived an hour late, greeting residents of the community.
Cortez campaign supporters set up a table full of campaign literature and hung campaign posters of AOC from the outside gate of the school which was an active voting site that day.
Speaking to several residents and members of the media outside of the Susan B. Wagner Preschool on East 229 Street, Bowman said, “They’re trying to buy this seat from the people, which is crazy.” Speaking of the Israel – Hamas war, Bowman said, “All because I called for peace, all because I called for a ceasefire.”
Speaking of Latimer without mentioning him by name, Bowman said, “He wants to spend a record amount of money against the first Black man in history to be in this seat.” He added, “People are watching all over the world to see what’s happening to the United States and its democracy.”
Bowman then led a marching band through the New York City Housing Authority’s Edenwald Houses, where he again shook hands and spoke to residents and posed for several cellphone photos.
With a marching band in tow, Congressional Jamaal Bowman walked through the Edenwald Houses complex shaking hands and taking cellphone pictures with residents on June 25, 2024. AOC was supposed to join him but was a no show. -Photo by David Greene
Hours earlier, Cortez, who handily defeated her challenger Marty Dolan with more than 80% of the votes (19,070 to 4,149) joined State Senator Gustavo Rivera (D-33) in Throggs Neck, in a failed effort to boost second-time challenger Jonathan Soto, who was defeated by longtime Assemblyman Michael Benedetto, who secured more than 60% of the votes in the race to represent the Democrat Party in the 82nd Assembly District.
Outside of P.S. 304 / M.S. 101 which is an active polling site, Rivera told reporters, “Bronx people are realizing to move things forward that we care about on education, taxation, criminal justice, on healthcare that we need to have better people in office,” like Soto.
Outside his daughter’s school, Soto said, “The Bronx is starved for resources.” Soto acknowledged, “We are going up against entrenched, established people… and we’re facing too many crises.”
Cortez said, “In the Bronx, the only people that are going to care about us is us.”
Moments before Cortez would conclude with her comments, one heckler shouted out, “Make America great again, that’s what we need to do.”
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