The new Ocasio-Cortez is Ayanna Pressley.

There was so much talk yesterday about the Kavanaugh hearings and the Bob Woodward book, that you may not have noticed it was primary day in Massachusetts. And look what happened (NYT link):

Ayanna Pressley upended the Massachusetts political order on Tuesday, scoring a stunning upset of 10-term Representative Michael Capuano and positioning herself to become the first African-American woman to represent the state in Congress....

Her victory carried echoes of the surprise win in June by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who trounced a longtime House incumbent, Joseph Crowley, in New York.....

There is no Republican on the November ballot in this storied Boston-based district, which was once represented by John F. Kennedy and is one of the most left leaning in the country....

“This is a big wake-up call to any incumbent on the ballot in November,” said Mary Anne Marsh, a Boston-based Democratic strategist. “We’ve been in a change election cycle for years. But Trump may have opened the door for all these young candidates, women, people of color, because voters want the antithesis of him.”...

“It felt like a good time to give someone who’s not a white male a shot,” said Linus Falck-Ytter, 26, a software developer, after voting in Cambridge. “And I liked that she’s more outspoken about helping underrepresented communities.”...

Linus Falck-Ytter. I'm just going to guess that's a white male.

Capuano was himself a big liberal so she had to "win by out-liberaling a liberal" —as one Democratic politico put it.

She argued that the needs of the district had changed over time and that the overwhelming “hate” coming from the White House required more than simply voting the right way. Battling Mr. Trump and overcoming longstanding economic and racial inequities required an entire movement, she said, suggesting she was better positioned than Mr. Capuano to spearhead that effort with what she called “activist leadership.”

Moreover, she argued that her life experience — her father struggled with drug addiction and was incarcerated for most of her youth, and she is a survivor of sexual assault — better prepared her to help people who have lived through trauma and other struggles. Perhaps the defining line of her stump speech was this: “The people closest to the pain should be closest to the power.”

Well put!

“With our rights under assault, with our freedoms under siege, it’s not just good enough to see the Democrats back in power, but it matters who those Democrats are,” she said. She lacerated Mr. Trump as “a racist, misogynistic, truly empathy-bankrupt man,” but said that some of the policies that have created economic inequities in the district were put in place when Democrats were in the White House and in control of Congress.

“Change isn’t waiting any longer,” she declared. “We have arrived, change is coming and the future belongs to all of us.”

Welcome, Ms. Pressley. As that ogre Trump likes to say, we'll see what happens.

ADDED: A good — and much up-voted — comment at the NYT:

This victory is also a warning to the Black political establishment. Deval Patrick and John Lewis supported Capuano in a show of old guard male solidarity. And Byron Rushing, a Black, old guard, high ranking state legislator, was defeated last night too. They did not recognize the moment.

A lot of men are quaking in their boots this morning. Those that aren’t should be.

AND: "A lot of men are quaking in their boots this morning" — That assumes the men are wearing boots. I'm visualizing guys who've left their sneakers by the door and are propping their stocking feet up on the coffee table, leaning back, relaxing on the sofa, and looking for what they call "a good time": "It felt like a good time to give someone who’s not a white male a shot.” Don't worry, the women will handle everything, and do nothing but thank you, because you're doing your part by going utterly passive.