Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has acknowledged her “privilege” in being born “cisgendered” – a term that describes people who don’t have gender identity issues.
Ocasio-Cortez, a junior Democratic Congresswoman who represents New York’s 14th district, apologized for embracing her gender and sexuality during an interview with Intercept editors Ryan Grim and Briahna Joy Gray on Thursday.
“I’m a cisgendered woman. I will never know the trauma of feeling like I’m not born in the right body. And that is a privilege that I have, no matter how poor my family was when I was born,” she said. “But it’s really hard for some people to admit that they — you know, it’s part of this weird American Dream mythology that we have, that for a lot of — in a lot of circumstances isn’t as true or isn’t as clearly communicated as we’d like for it, or we wish it was.”
The 29-year-old also discussed racism and the “unfair incarceration” of black men in prisons in America. “And it’s like, okay, acknowledging racism is a really big step. It’s a really big step from where we were. But you’re right, it’s nowhere near enough and the solutions are so painful.”
Ocasio-Cortez angered her progressive colleagues when she proposed a 70 percent marginal tax rate on the wealthy.
Some Democrats are floating the idea of backing a primary challenger to run against Ocasio-Cortez in 2020.
According to The Hill, at least one senior Democrat has privately urged members of the New York delegation to recruit a local politician who isn’t as controversial as Ocasio-Cortez to challenge her seat in the House.
“You’ve got numerous council people and state legislators [in NY] who’ve been waiting 20 years for that seat,” the anonymous Democrat told The Hill. “I’m sure they can find numerous people who want that seat in that district.”
Ocasio-Cortez responded by quickly raising $105,000 in donations to pay for Facebook ads and email blasts to fight off a challenger for her seat in a primary election in 2020.
“They’re plotting a primary challenge because they don’t like that we’re shaking things up in DC,” her campaign wrote in a Facebook ad. “We need to show how strong our campaign will be when they come after us in 2020,” the ad continued.
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