NEW YORK, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-nine-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives, made history in the U.S. midterm elections on Tuesday, becoming the youngest woman ever elected to Congress in the country.
Ocasio-Cortez easily prevailed in a heavily Democratic district against her Republican rival Anthony Pappas, who had lost the support of fellow Republicans last month after admitting that his wife had accused him of domestic violence.
Born in New York City's borough of Bronx to a Puerto Rican family, Ocasio-Cortez stunned the United States in the Democratic primary in June by defeating incumbent New York Representative Joe Crowley, who also serves as the House Democratic Caucus chairman.
Rising from obscurity, Ocasio-Cortez started her political career as an organizer for Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, and has identified herself as a democratic socialist.
Her Tuesday victory broke the record previously held by Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican representative who was elected into Congress in 2015 at the age of 30.
"This is what is possible when everyday people come together in the collective realization that all our actions, no matter how small, or how large, are powerful, worthwhile and capable of lasting change," said Ocasio-Cortez in her victory speech on Tuesday night.
In another major development of Tuesday's elections, incumbent New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, clinched an easy victory and secured a third term governing the state.
Cuomo, who had led the midterm campaign by a wide margin from the beginning, beat Republican challenger Marc Molinaro, gaining the same number of terms as his father, the late governor of New York Mario Cuomo.
