MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Mid Term Elections

Interview

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HAYES: The brand new star of the Democratic Party is a 28-year-old woman named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who beat a ten-term congressman, the fourth ranking Democrat in the House, someone talked about as a possible speaker in the future, in last night`s primary.

Ocasio-Cortez first grabbed my attention back in May when she released this pretty amazing campaign ad.

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HAYES: That progressive message, which pointedly did not include any mention of the president, propelled Ocasio-Cortez to victory. But after a day like today, the question is -- is that still a viable path for Democrats?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will join me here in just a moment. Don`t go away.

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HAYES: That is what shock, genuine and real honest shock, looks like in the upset win for Democartic nominee for congress in New York`s 14th district in the Bronx and Queens. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, a 28-year-old former bartender, community organizer, Bernie Sanders supporter, working class New Yorker, as she calls herself, and Democratic Socialist, a woman who ran one of the most incredibly impressive campaigns honestly in recent memory.

To pull off the biggest upset in congressional politics since Tea Party candidate David Bratt defeated Republican`s House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

She defeated Congressman Joe Crowley, a ten-term incumbent, the number four Democrat in the House. Ocasio-Cortez refused corporate money and was outspent by Crowley five to one, but in the end, it wasn`t even that close.

She garnered 57 percent of the vote If she defeats the Republican in November in her heavily Democratic district, she will become the youngest woman ever elected to congress, a reminder of the power of a grassroots campaign and how much elections matter.

Joining me now, Democratic nominee for congress in New York`s 14th District, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Well, that was something else.

OCASIO-CORTEZ: It really was, wasn`t it?

HAYES: So here`s the thing I found fascinating, like what -- you had a game plan very early and stuck to it. It was a very strategic campaign. And I saw it unfold as a watched it, because I`m a Bronx native so I pay a lot of attention to New York politics.

What was the game plan? What was your theory of the case of why you could have won?

OCASIO-CORTEZ: You know, from day one I have been an educator in this community, an organizer, and I knew the people who lived here. I knew our community. And I knew that in this election, our main task was to educate and expand the electorate. And, you know, folks say that that`s the hardest thing to do to get people to turn out to an off year midterm primary, but I knew that if you could really inspire and educate people and stick to the issues and do the block by block door knocking and phone calling that you can get it done. Old school meets new school digital.

HAYES: So did you do -- do you door knocking yourself?

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Yeah, absolutely. I`ve knocked on a bunch of doors in the
district.

HAYES: I mean, one of the ironies here, this is a little bit in the weeds, but I think it`s fascinating is that like New York has this totally screwy primary system that is designed to decrease turnout so that machine party candidates and incumbents can win, because they figure they`re the only people who are going to show up.

And it literally came back to shoot them in the foot.

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Yeah, well, it`s this thing -- you know, there are kind of notorious political machines. You have the Illinois, you have the like the Chicago political machine that Barack Obama famously kind of, you know, contended with. But they are turnout machines. Those are people that can -- know how to turn out 40,000 people for a given candidate you know with a snap of the finger, but New York relies on voter suppression and voter depression, as we joke about. And what it does is, you know, it means that sometimes a congressional race can be decided with less votes than a city council.

HAYES: I mean, turnout in your district yesterday was like 12 percent, I think, in some it was 10, 5 percent in the uncontested ones. So it was -- 12 percent is higher than it would have been if you were not in that race for sure.
Let me ask you about this label -- you call yourself a Democratic Socialist. You`re a member of DSA. There`s so much interesting debate what that term means in the year 2018. What`s it mean to you?

OCASIO-CORTEZ: To me, you know -- and it is I think it`s a big tent term. And for me what it means is that in a modern and moral America, a modern, moral and wealthy America, where we have the capacity to ensure that every American can have health care and education and access to dignified housing, we should be able to try to do that as a society by whichever means we can.

HAYES: That`s it?

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Yeah.

HAYES: I mean, that`s an agnostic read of the term.

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Yeah, you know.

HAYES: Methodologically.

OCASIO-CORTEZ: But I think at the end of the day, it boils down to the basic elements that are required for an economic and socially dignified life in the United States at a very basic means. We should aim to guarantee those things. I don`t think any person in America should die because they`re too poor to live.

HAYES: When did it come to you -- when did you have the idea like I`m going run for congress? Like what was the…

OCASIO-CORTEZ: You know, I was nominated to run by a phenomenal organization called Justice Democrats. And so I am actually one of 60 candidates nationwide just like me, candidates like Iona Presley, Amar Campo-Najar (ph) out in California, Kanella Ng (ph) in Hawaii. And so I was actually just getting off of the camp at Standing Rock two years ago and I received a phone call from Justice Democrats, and they were seeking essentially non-corporate candidates with a history of community service to run in the 2018 midterm elections to try to get money out of politics.

HAYES: And there you are, probably soon to be Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I hope you`ll come back to the show.

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Absolutely. I hope to be back. Thank you so much.

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