Ocasio-Cortez: Congress remains about 80 % male, ‘creates blind spots in our legislation’
Congress remains about 80 percent male, which “creates blind spots in our legislation,” said the Congressional candidate for New York State’s 14th district Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday.
Appearing on CBS’S Face the Nation, Ocasio- Cortez discussed the factors surrounding her win especially this being the year of the woman. She was asked whether gender was a factor in her shocking win over the seasoned politician Rep. Joe Crowley (R-NY.) Cortez
Ocasio- Cortez denied her win was simply because it’s the “year of the woman” stating, “Well, I think that the factors ultimately created our win was the fact that we had bold commitments and I campaigned on hard commitments of Medicare for all, tuition-free public college, ensuring a Green New Deal for our future.”
“There is no decision about the party leader until we win the House first,” Ocasio-Cortez said, In response to host Margaret Brennan’s question on to whether she’d consider endorsing Pelosi for speaker.
A partial transcript of the interview can be read below:
MARGARET BRENNAN: Last week on this program we had the man you defeated, the New York Congressman Joe Crowley and he congratulated you on your win. He said you very much deserved it. He also explained two factors he thought that were- were decisive here. One of them being the year of the woman, he called it, and also the timing of the primary. Are those factors in your view?
OCASIO-CORTEZ: Well, I think that the factors that ultimately created our win was the fact that we had bold commitments and I campaigned on hard commitments of Medicare for all, tuition-free public college, ensuring a Green New Deal for our future and championing those issues were the reason that we won. We won across demographics. We won- we expanded the electorate ourselves. We did the work of organizing.
BRENNAN: So you reject the idea that your gender was a factor here?
OCASIO-CORTEZ: Um, you know, I think that you know I think that in this moment, there’s a confluence of factors that makes this moment inspiring. Right now more women than ever are running for office and I do think that women want representation in Congress, absolutely. Congress right now is 80 percent male. And that creates blind spots in our legislation. It means we don’t have family leave, we don’t have paid maternal and parental leave. It means that we don’t get the equal pay that we want. So I think those issues certainly were important.
