OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is facing a primary challenger who holds opposing views to her left-wing positions. Marty Dolan, a Wall Street investor with an MBA from Harvard University, is running as a Democrat in New York’s 14th congressional district. He aims to bring a different perspective to the party and has criticized AOC’s progressive stance.
“I am excited to formally announce my candidacy for the Democratic nomination for New York’s 14th Congressional District,” Dolan said on his campaign website. “The June 25th, 2024, primary will be a referendum: Are we better or worse off from following radical policies?”
He went on to say that “progressives” like AOC are “radicals whose influence on the Democratic Party is overweight.” Dolan went on to say that Democratic policies are not keeping New Yorkers safe.
“The impact in NYC is obvious: bail reform a disaster, the National Guard in the subway, toothpaste locked up in drugstores but criminals running free, scarce resources directed to (non-sanctuary) immigrants coming from all over the world,” Dolan said.
“These difficulties must be addressed in the context of a runaway $34 trillion federal debt and NYC’s 14% marginal tax rate,” he added. “Regional tax inequality is far more exaggerated in the USA than in any other country.”
He also noted that in recent years, New York’s far-left Democratic policies have caused upwards of 500,000 higher-earning taxpayers to leave the city, something he called “unsustainable.”
“The radicals can’t deliver more than breadcrumbs when they ignore that the primary breadwinners are leaving and brush off taxpayer concerns in favor of abstract populist ideologies,” Dolan said about “tax the rich” slogans by AOC and those who agree with her.
“Enough is enough,” he added.
The businessman wants to bring the Democratic Party back in line with what the founders envisioned, adding that they “left us the blueprint” and that the party has “drifted off course.”
“We also urgently need to ‘reset’ our society’s income inequality and harmonize regional differences in social policy,” Dolan stated. “We call our approach the ‘Hamilton Plan v. 2.0’ in honor of one of our greatest New Yorkers, Alexander Hamilton, who forged the independent colonies into a great republic.”
