AOC to Face Challenge From Ex-CNBC Reporter Michelle Caruso-Cabrera
Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, a former CNBC international correspondent, announced Tuesday her run as a Democrat against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York’s 14th congressional district.
I’m running for NY-14, to fight for the people of Queens & the Bronx, daughter of Cuban immigrants and living the American Dream ?? https://t.co/DY5eLoCKgL
— Michelle Caruso-Cabrera (@MCaruso_Cabrera) February 11, 2020
A source familiar with Ocasio-Cortez’s thinking on her new challenger suggested she’s not too worried about Caruso-Cabrera “especially given that she has no history in the community.”
The source noted that Trump’s economic advisor wrote a foreword to her book and has chapters in it dedicated to Reagan “and gutting social security — I’m not sure she’s even a Democrat.”
For her part, Caruso-Cabrera told one of her former CNBC colleagues that she could win because Ocasio-Cortez had 16,898 votes in the primary, with less than 28,000 votes cast.
MCC tells me she is a registered Democrat and has been for several years. She says this race is winnable, arguing that AOC had 16,898 votes in her primary, but less than 28,000 votes were cast.
— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) February 11, 2020
Caruso-Cabrera began her career at Univision News and was named one of the “100 Most Influential Hispanics” in the country by Hispanic Business Magazine, and Broadcaster of the Year from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, according to her campaign biography.
Councilman Fernando Cabrera (D-Bronx) and activist Badrun Khan also are challenging the Queens and Bronx lawmaker.
Ocasio-Cortez would likely cast Caruso-Cabrera as a Davos-hopping, corporate Democrat, and use her past words against her to argue that she’s out of step with the minority-majority district. In her book, You Know I’m Right: More Prosperity, Less Government, Caruso-Cabrera has a chapter titled “Ronald Reagan Had It Right,” where she wrote simply “I will always love Ronald Reagan,” calling his election a “revolution,” much like Ocasio-Cortez describes Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, whom she endorsed.
Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most high-profile backers of Medicare for All and The Green New Deal, also likely wouldn’t write a fond Amazon review of the chapter titled “Mind My Business, Not My Bedroom,” where Caruso-Cabrera said “I want a government that stays out of my pocketbook and stays out of my private life. I find it frustrating that the Democrats think I want to keep paying for their big government and endless spending projects.”
