Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin attended Netroots Nation in New Orleans over the weekend and met up with socialist Democrat candidate for Congress Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
This gathering of progressives, sponsored by the likes of Planned Parenthood, MoveOn, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Facebook, has been held annually for more than a decade.
According to the conference website, the “attendees are online organizers, grassroots activists and independent media makers. Some are professionals who work at advocacy organizations, progressive companies or labor unions.”
Mayor Woodfin tweeted that he was “honored to join thousands of progressive leaders and organizers from around the country,” before sharing a more controversial tweet.
Proud to have shared the stage tonight with an inspirational, and unabashedly progressive leader like @Ocasio2018. #BuildingMovements pic.twitter.com/UM714CAWas
— Randall Woodfin (@WoodfinForBham) August 5, 2018
Ocasio-Cortez, pictured above with Mayor Woodfin, has become the national darling of the socialist movement in America after winning the Democratic primary for Congress in New York’s Fourteenth Congressional District.
Ocasio-Cortez supports Medicare for all, everyone being guaranteed a job by the federal government, abolishing ICE, tuition-free public college, gun control, restriction-free abortions and a “Green New Deal” which would attempt to eliminate all fossil fuels by 2035.
She belongs to a new socialist movement calling themselves “Justice Democrats.” This appears to be what Mayor Woodfin was referencing in the above tweet when he said “#BuildingMovements.”
Mayor Woodfin won office with the backing of Bernie Sanders and his “Our Revolution” 501(c)(4) social welfare organization.
At Netroots, Mayor Woodfin also participated in a panel on net neutrality and delivered one of the closing key note addresses, in which he took a swipe at President Donald Trump.
This is what progressive leadership looks like. Great meeting @reptimryan, @NYCMayor, @GovernorBullock, @JRosenworcel , Travis Leblanc and @Ocasio2018 ! pic.twitter.com/iJesEmqEFr
— Randall Woodfin (@WoodfinForBham) August 5, 2018
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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