Ever since Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez unseated 10-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley of New York in the Democratic congressional primary, many news outlets have covered what this means for the Democratic Party. Stories have come out about how Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic Socialist, was able to win, and the likelihood of Ocasio-Cortez becoming the youngest congresswoman ever.
As a native of the Bronx, I followed her campaign closely as she was active on social media to educate her followers of her campaign and her ability to represent the district better than her opponent. This was the first time I was excited and engaged with local elections. Although I have been active in voting in local elections, I had never come across a candidate that represented my community in the ways that she did. Despite living in Philadelphia and being unable to vote in that election, I was eager to share her posts and talk to people about her campaign.
College-educated citizens are more likely to vote in political elections, yet young voters (18-29) generally have the lowest turn-out. Given Ocasio-Cortez’s success in engaging first-time voters despite being significantly underfunded compared to her opponent, I find that her election has many lessons for colleges throughout the nation to take note of in engaging their students and surrounding communities to participate in local elections.
1. Excite students about the opportunity of change over the doubt that their votes matter.
Although this was her first campaign and she was running against a senior politician who was thought to replace Nancy Pelosi as the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, this did not stop her from advocating for her community. According to the New York Times, the last time Rep. Crowley had a primary challenger was in 2004, a time when Ocasio-Cortez was too young to vote. Ocasio-Cortez used this to her advantage by criticizing his long-time tenure, yet his failure to truly represent the people of the district in the Bronx and Queens. Ocasio-Cortez reminded her district that her role is to represent their needs and that the Democratic party should not assume their support.
For higher education, it is pertinent to use election results like this to engage and empower students to see how much their votes matter. Ocasio-Cortez was able to engage voters by focusing on citizens that “the establishment” usually ignores — young eligible voters, underrepresented minorities, working-class people and those who report being “too busy” to vote. While young voters, including college students, report not feeling that they can make a difference or are simply too busy to vote, stories like these can remind them that they can have a significant role in the result of an election. Despite low turn-out overall for this primary election (although seemingly higher than usual), much of the success of Ocasio-Cortez’s win was due to the first-time voters in the district, many of which were young and underrepresented ethnic minorities. Colleges and universities have a significant amount of eligible first-time voters — it should be an institutional goal to have high rates of voter turn-out on their campuses.
2. Identity matters—don’t ignore it.
