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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Alleges Rep. Joe Crowley Is Planning A Third-Party Run For NY-14 House Seat

By Stacy Carey
Published on: 07:11 PST, Jul 12, 2018

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stunned many across the nation when she beat Rep. Joe Crowley in the Democratic primary for their district in New York. Crowley, who has represented the 14th district for some time now, was expected by many to prevail in the recent primary faceoff between the two. However, the 28-year-old political newcomer delivered a crushing defeat. Now things are getting tense on Twitter as she accuses him of planning a third-party run to disrupt her campaign.

Things started to get ugly on social media after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted on Twitter early Thursday morning about Rep. Joe Crowley. She noted that Crowley had said on television that he would support her candidacy heading into the general election this fall. However, Ocasio-Cortez claims Crowley has allegedly now stood her up three different times in regards to scheduled concession calls.

In addition, Ocasio-Cortez alleges that Crowley is now moving forward on a third-party challenge against her. Alexandria notes that this supposed third-party campaign runs contrary to her as well as to the wishes of the Democratic Party and the progressive New York Working Families Party.

The Washington Post explains that according to New York election law, Crowley could run in November as the nominee of the New York Working Families Party despite losing the Democratic nomination. His name is on the ballot as the WFP nominee, but the party’s executive director has requested that it be removed. The NYWFP has endorsed Ocasio-Cortez.

As this situation escalated on Twitter, the NY Working Families account tweeted that there are numerous ways that Crowley could have himself removed from the November ballot. They said it was outrageous that he wasn’t making the effort to do this, and they reiterated that their support goes to Ocasio-Cortez.

For his part, Crowley did take to Twitter to respond to Ocasio-Cortez’s early morning tweet. He said that he’s made his support for her clear and he emphasized that the Democrats need to come together now post-primary. He said he’s also made it clear that he’s not running, and he alleges that it’s her team that has not followed through on the numerous phone calls that were supposed to be made.

Crowley also said that he’d like to make contact with her, but insisted that he’s not willing to battle over this via social media. The current House representative posted another tweet indicating that while he was honored to have the support of the WFP, there are only a handful of ways that he could be removed from the ballot at this point, adding that none of them are particularly valid options. He maintains that he’s not running, but at this point, it looks like he’ll be on the ballot regardless.

Given the demographics of New York’s 14th district, it has been widely assumed that Ocasio-Cortez is poised to become the next representative in the House for the area. However, if Crowley were to move forward on a third-party run, that could definitely cause issues.

The 10-term incumbent seems adamant that he’s not running, but the newcomer is definitely not convinced. This dust-up is causing a lot of chaos on social media and it seems it could provide a dangerous distraction if it doesn’t subside soon. Many are urging Rep. Joe Crowley and candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to take this offline and handle their disagreement privately, and many will be anxious to see if they can manage that.

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