In a 95-second speech during the second night of the Democratic National Convention, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez nominated Sen. Bernie Sanders for U.S. president.
Ocasio-Cortez’s support for Sanders Tuesday evening was wholly symbolic, as the 78-year-old Vermont senator suspended his campaign back in April.
In her short address, Ocasio-Cortez did not name Sanders’ opponent — former U.S. vice-president Joe Biden — once.
Instead, she offered her “fidelity and gratitude” to those she said are “endeavouring towards a better, more just future” for the United States.
Ocasio-Cortez referred to a “mass people’s movement,” that she said is “working to establish 21st century social, economic and human rights, including guaranteed health care, higher education, living wages and labor rights for all people in the United States.”
She said the movement strives to “recognize and repair the wounds of racial injustice, colonization, misogyny and homophobia.”
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“And to propose and build re-imagines systems of immigration and foreign policy that turn away from the violence and xenophobia of our past,” she continued.
Ocasio-Cortez said in a time when millions of Americans are looking for “deep, systematic solutions” to issues including mass evictions, unemployment and health care, she chose to nominate Sanders for president.
Former UAW President Bob King also nominated Sanders for president, calling him a “great champion of the working class.”
But shortly after suspending his campaign, Sanders formally endorsed Biden.
“We must come together to defeat the most dangerous president in modern history,” Sanders wrote in a post on Twitter.
In an address of his own during the convention’s opening night, Sanders said the U.S. needs to muster an “unprecedented response, a movement like never before,” and called on Americans to elect Biden.
Moments after Ocasio-Cortez delivered her remarks, the party began its roll call — conducted virtually — to officially name Biden the Democratic nominee.
In a tweet posted just after 10 p.m. ET, Ocasio-Cortez congratulated Biden on the nomination.
“I deeply look forward to fighting for our future together and reclaiming our democracy in November,” she wrote.
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