Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Wading Deeper Into New York Mayor’s Race, Decries Democratic Party ‘Gerontocracy’

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in a fiery speech on Saturday night, told New Yorkers that they have the chance to beat back the Democratic Party’s “gerontocracy” when voters go to the polls in a primary election June 24. The race has boiled down to two leading candidates — Governor Cuomo, who’s trying to make his political comeback after resigning in disgrace nearly four years ago, and state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani. The latter is a 33-year-old member of the Democratic Socialists of America who has become the leading liberal opponent of the former governor in this race.Early voting for the election began Saturday.According to the most recent polling, Mr. Mamdani is now leading Mr. Cuomo in the first round of ranked-choice voting. Another internal poll from Mr. Mamdani’s campaign shows him just two points behind Mr. Cuomo in the fifth and final round of ranked-choice voting. Speaking at a rally for Mr. Mamdani, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said it would be “unconscionable” to let Mr. Cuomo win the Democratic nomination. If voters can get Mr. Mamdani over the finish line, she said, it will be a blow to the gerontocracy not just in their city and state, but in the halls of Congress as well. “Andrew Cuomo has made clear that if he wins this race, he wants to run for president of the United States of America,” the congresswoman told a large gathering of Mamdani supporters on Saturday. “In a world and a nation that is crying to end the gerontocracy of our leadership, that wants a new day, that wants to see a new generation ascend, it is unconscionable to send Andrew Cuomo to Gracie Mansion.” “New York City — we need a new day,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez told supporters. The congresswoman herself likely has an especially personal reason to be railing against her party’s aging leadership — because she herself has been locked out of power positions in Congress by a seniority system that blocks popular young lawmakers who might be more appealing to younger voters.Last year, after Republicans swept the 2024 elections, she made a bid to be the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee. Many liberals believed that she was exactly what they needed as a public face for a party that had lost the trust of younger voters during the sclerotic Biden years. Ultimately, she was defeated by a septuagenarian lawmaker, Congressman Gerry Connolly, for the ranking member position. Less than six months later, Connolly announced he would step back from the position due to his advancing esophageal cancer. Within weeks, he was dead. Many speculated that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez would run again for the Oversight Committee post, despite leaving the panel after her defeat. She later decided against it, citing her assessment that her House Democratic colleagues prefer senior citizens as committee leaders. “It’s actually clear to me that the underlying dynamics in the caucus have not shifted with respect to seniority, as much as I think would be necessary,” she told reporters. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t have problems with all of the party elders, however. She spent several weekends in the first half of this year rallying with Senator Sanders — one of the few octogenarians in Congress who has faced little criticism for his age. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s criticisms of her Democratic colleagues goes beyond the gerontocracy and political ideology, however. She also spoke on Saturday about how disgusted she is that several House Democrats who called for Mr. Cuomo to step down following the sexual harassment investigation are now backing him for mayor. “I cannot tell you how shocked I have been to see so many of the individuals who called on Andrew Cuomo to resign in disgrace after so many details of harassment against women,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said at the rally, barely hiding her deep disappointment in fellow lawmakers. “For those same people who called on him to resign to stand behind him and endorse him for mayor of New York City, I will tell you … as a survivor of sexual assault, I will never unsee that,” she said. Four congressmen from New York who represent New York City — Ritchie Torres, Tom Suozzi, Gregory Meeks, and Adriano Espaillat — are just a few of the politicians who have done an about-face to call for Mr. Cuomo to be their new mayor despite their calls for his resignation in 2021. Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand, who both demanded Mr. Cuomo’s resignation in 2021, have not endorsed him, though they have not ruled out supporting him if he becomes the Democratic nominee. The House minority leader, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, has said the same, even though he also told the governor to resign four years ago. “We have to have a politics of integrity — not a politics of cowardice,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez declared.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Wading Deeper Into New York Mayor’s Race, Decries Democratic Party ‘Gerontocracy’

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