Congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Sunday that, while she endorsed Cynthia Nixon in the New York gubernatorial primary, she focused on "local candidates" who didn't lose.
Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic socialist, appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" with Jake Tapper on Sunday and responded to comments made by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, where he called her campaign a "fluke" and gloated about handily defeating his progressive challenger Nixon.
"I'm always down to go toe-to-toe sometimes," Ocasio-Cortez said about Cuomo. "When you actually look at the numbers we focused on, every single down-ballot progressive candidate in my district, New York 14, won. New York had a profound, tidal change in the Democratic party."
She added that "every single locally endorsed candidate that we mobilized for won the election," and Nixon did a "phenomenal job." Tapper pointed out Nixon lost by 30 points in Ocasio-Cortez's progressive district.
"Right, but we focused on our local candidates and the legislatures," Ocasio-Cortez replied.
On June 25, Ocasio-Cortez spoke at a press conference in support of Nixon, which was live-streamed on Ocasio-Cortez's twitter.
Ocasio-Cortez said that Nixon's campaign, though unsuccessful, helped down-ballot Democrats.
"She centered a lot of phenomenal issues, racial justice, criminal justice reform. She centered the legalization of marijuana, single-payer health care," She said, "and a lot of down-ballot candidates benefited from that."
Despite Nixon's loss, Ocasio-Cortez cited progressive success in her district and decried attempts to tie Nixon's lost to her campaign.
You’re looking at the wrong number.
*Every* progressive local candidate in NY-14 won last night. Our district ALONE took down 3 IDC members.
Organizers beat a $2 million incumbent who spent more than a gubernatorial campaign.
I wasn’t even on the ballot. Why project onto me? https://t.co/QmHtfZqpJL
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 14, 2018
Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez has been responding to backlash from a magazine photoshoot she took part in, a photoshoot where the candidate who has advocated for Medicare for All and free tuition for public college, wore an outfit that cost over $3500 and posed with construction workers. The interview that accompanied that photoshoot was done by Kerry Washington, an actress who earned $250,000 per episode for her TV show, Scandal.