By Nicholas Ballasy
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention nominated Sen. Bernie Sanders for president and applauded his supporters for working toward “guaranteed health care, higher education, living wages and labor rights for all people in the United States.”
The New York Democrat spoke about 30 minutes before a roll call was held and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden received enough delegate votes to become the party’s official 2020 nominee. She did not mention Biden in the speech.
“A movement striving to recognize and repair the wounds of racial injustice, colonization, misogyny and homophobia and to propose and build reimagined systems of immigration and foreign policy that turn away from the violence and xenophobia of our past,” Ocasio-Cortez said in the off-site speech.
Sanders, a Vermont Independent and democratic-socialist, ran unsuccessfully for president in 2016 and 2020 on the Democratic ticket.
Ocasio-Cortez praised the Sanders campaign and his supporters for organizing a “historic grassroots campaign to reclaim our democracy.”
Referring to the economic problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Ocasio-Cortez said millions of Americans are looking for “deep systemic solutions to our crises of mass evictions, unemployment and lack of health care.”
Following her speech at the convention, Ocasio-Cortez explained that she was asked by the Democratic National Committee to speak during the roll call for Sanders’ ceremonial nomination.
“Convention rules require roll call & nominations for every candidate that passes the delegate threshold,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter, adding that she wants Biden to win in November.
