Fifth Republican Launches Bid To Unseat Ocasio-Cortez In 2020

QUEENS, NY — Scherie Murray, a Jamaican entrepreneur who grew up in Southeast Queens, launched a campaign Wednesday to unseat U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2020.

Murray is the fifth Republican to file plans to run against Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat who ousted party boss Joe Crowley in 2018 to represent the Bronx and Queens in Congress.

"There is a crisis in Queens, and it’s called AOC," Murray told Fox News, which broke the news of her candidacy. "And instead of focusing on us, she’s focusing on being famous."

Murray was born in Jamaica and came to the United States when she was nine. She worked for the MTA's Jamaica bus depot as a teenager and founded a television production and advertising company called The Esemel Group in 2004.

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This isn't Murray's first time running for public office. She ran for a City Council seat representing parts of Southeast Queens in 2009, losing to now-State Sen. James Sanders Jr., and again in 2013, when current City Council Member Donovan Richards won by a landslide.

In 2013, she became a district leader with the New York Republican State Committee.

Murray also ran — and lost — against Democrat Alicia Hyndman in a 2015 special election for a State Assembly seat, which opened up when Assemblyman William Scarborough went to prison for filing false expense reports.

Murray launched her campaign Wednesday with an introductory video painting Ocasio-Cortez as an opportunist.

"Your representative in Washington chooses self-promotion over service, conflict over constituents, resistance over assistance," Murray says in the video.

"Queens and the Bronx needs someone who will create jobs instead of turning them away," she adds.

Murray joins four other Republicans running for the same seat, representing New York's 14th Congressional district, the New York Post reported.

They are former police officer John Cummings, journalist Ruth Papazian, construction contractor Miguel Hernandez and entrepreneur Antoine Tucker.

No Democrats have filed plans to challenge Ocasio-Cortez in 2020, according to the Post.

Ocasio-Cortez easily defeated Republican Anthony Pappas in the 2018 election after her upset victory to Crowley in the primary.

View this post on Instagram

There’s a crisis in Queens and the Bronx and it’s called AOC. She isn’t worried about us - she’s worried about being famous. That’s why I’m running for Congress. Join our movement to #unitethefight
A post shared by Scherie Murray (@scheriemurrayny14) on Jul 17, 2019 at 3:48am PDT

This story has been updated to add details about Scherie Murray's run for New York State Assembly in 2015.