Bronx councilmember joins growing field of AOC challengers
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Bronx Councilmember Fernando Cabrera will challenge U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the Democratic primary for New York’s 12th Council District. New York City Council Photo by William Alatriste/Flickr.
By Victoria Merlino
Bronx Councilmember Fernando Cabrera, a Democrat, is the latest person to challenge U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her seat in New York’s 14th Congressional District. Cabrera joined a swollen field of candidates vying to represent the district, which includes parts of Queens and the Bronx, when he filed with the Federal Election Commision on Oct. 4.
“Only a Democrat is going to be able to defeat her, and it’s going to be a moderate Democrat,” Cabrera told POLITICO. “She’s a no-show in the district. She hasn’t brought about anything except division within the party.”
Cabrera does not currently live in Ocasio-Cortez’ district, but he said he would move if elected to her seat, according to the Post. Cabrera’s city council district does not overlap with Ocasio-Cortez’s Congressional district.
In interviews with the press following his announcement, Cabrera railed against Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal plan, her opposition to Amazon’s plan to build a business campus in Long Island City and her democratic socialist values.
Cabrera told the New York Post that he would be running as pro-capitalist campaign.
“We have not seen a country where socialism has proven to work. People are not dying to move to socialist countries,” he told the Post.
Cabrera, a pastor at New Life Outreach International church in the Bronx, has been a councilmember since 2010. He ran for State Senate twice, losing in 2014 and 2016 to State Sen. Gustavo Rivera.
Cabrera has been criticized for comments denouncing gays rights. A 2014 video shows Cabrera praising the country of Uganda’s leadership even as other international leaders condemed the nation for passing a strict anti-gay laws.
He told the Post that he personally opposes abortion and gay marriage, but he understands that they are “the law of the land” and they would not be “burning issues” in the primary campaign against Ocasio-Cortez.
Cabrera joins a host of hopefuls looking to unseat Ocasio-Cortez, including another Democractic candidate, community activist Badrun Khan. A slew of Republicans have also entered the race, including journalist Ruth Papazian, Manhattan Republican Miguel Hernandez, Antonie Tucker, businesswoman Scherie Murray and former-cop-turned-civics-teacher John Cummings.
Ocasio-Cortez defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley in the 2018 Democratic primary for NY-12. She remains fairly popular in her district, with an April Siena College poll indicating a 48 percent favorability rating among all local voters, and 61 percent among Democrats.
She initially captured the district with 78.2 percent of the vote in November 2018. Her Republican challenger, Anthony Pappas, received 13.6 percent of the vote.
