An Ecstatic Homecoming for AOC
At a recent town hall in Queens, AOC received a rapturous reception from constituents, many of them activists who spoke out about their local organizing work. The lesson was clear: to keep up the fight, she and her Congressional colleagues will need more than applause — they’ll need a movement behind them.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez holds an immigration town hall In Queens on July 20, 2019 in New York City.Spencer Platt / Getty
If you needed relief last Saturday from the hot stink of New York City on a 100 degree day — and from the lingering stench of Donald Trump’s “Send her back!” hate rally in North Carolina — you should have been in the modest auditorium of P.S. 16 in the Corona neighborhood of Queens.
That’s where Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hosted an immigration town hall translated into seven different languages for attendees who hailed from across the globe and now live in the Congresswoman’s New York 14 district.
Some in the audience held signs with messages like “Queens has your back” and “This is our country” — eager to show AOC some love after weeks of seeing her attacked: first put down by the leader of her own party as not having “any following,” then targeted by the President’s racial taunt to “go back” to whatever nonwhite country he thinks she’s from.
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