Democratic heavyweight Rep. Joe Crowley loses in New York; Trump's picks win

Democratic heavyweight Rep. Joe Crowley loses in New York; Trump’s picks win

Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), until his primary loss Tuesday night, had been considered a candidate to succeed Nancy Pelosi as Democratic House leader.

By Associated Press

June 26, 2018 7:33 PM PT

Reporting from NEW YORK — As President Trump’s party came together, a 28-year-old liberal activist ousted top House Democrat Joseph Crowley in the president’s hometown Tuesday night, a stunning defeat that suddenly forced Democrats to confront their own internal divisions.

Crowley, the No. 4 House Democrat and until Tuesday considered a possible candidate to replace Nancy Pelosi as leader, becomes the first Democratic incumbent to fall this primary season. He was beaten by underfunded challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a former Bernie Sanders organizer who caught fire with the party’s left wing.

Crowley’s loss echoed across the political world, sending the unmistakable message that divisions between the Democratic Party’s pragmatic and more liberal wings may be widening heading into the high-stakes November midterm election. It also exposed a generational divide among Democrats still struggling with their identity in the Trump era.

“The community is ready for a movement of economic and social justice. That is what we tried to deliver,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with the Associated Press. She said she knew she could connect with the New York district, which includes Queens and part of the Bronx. “I live in this community. I organized in this community. I felt the absence of the incumbent. I knew he didn’t have a strong presence.”

Trump, on social media at least, seemed equally excited about Crowley’s defeat.

“Perhaps he should have been nicer, and more respectful, to his President!” Trump tweeted, oddly taking credit for a victory by a candidate more liberal than Crowley. He added: “The Democrats are in Turmoil!”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, left, is joined by New York gubenatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon at a victory party in the Bronx after upsetting incumbent Democratic Representative Joseph Crowly on June 26.

All in all, Trump had reason to celebrate Tuesday night as all three of his endorsed candidates survived primary challenges that could have embarrassed him and the party.

Those included New York Rep. Daniel Donovan, who defeated convicted felon and former congressman Michael Grimm in New York City’s only Republican stronghold, and former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who once branded Trump “a fraud” but has warmed to the president in the last two years. Romney easily won his party’s primary for a U.S. Senate seat in Utah, virtually ensuring he’ll be elected in November.

Yet none of the day’s contests mattered more to Trump than the one in South Carolina.

Gov. Henry McMaster, one of the president’s earliest and strongest supporters, survived an unusually tough challenge from a political newcomer, self-made Republican millionaire John Warren.

The White House went all in for the governor in recent days, dispatching the president and the vice president to the state in an effort to prevent a political debacle.

UPDATES:

11:05 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details throughout.

This article was originally published at 7:25 p.m.