In 2020, Justine Medina was working for the campaign to re-elect one of the House’s most controversial figures: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
Now, Medina runs the New York Communist Party.
In 2020, Medina served as a political organizer for Ocasio-Cortez, according to records publicized Saturday by the New York Post. Medina earned more than $35,000 for less than 10 months of work on the Ocasio-Cortez campaign.
She described herself as a communist even while working for Ocasio-Cortez.
“Well, I *am* a Communist, but work for AOC,” Medina tweeted in October 2020, in response to a question about third parties. “I’m in multiple organizations.”
Medina apparently wasn’t involved in Ocasio-Cortez’s 2022 campaign. Around that time, Medina was reportedly working for Amazon and writing for People’s World, a media outlet describing her as a member of “the Executive Committee of the New York State Communist Party.”
The Communist operative has seen her work publicly criticized by her own father, a well off Florida-based lawyer named Omar Medina.
“As for her allegiance to the Communist Party, I could not be further removed from that. It’s a big problem,” her father told the NY Post Saturday.
He went on to recount his family’s history under Cuba’s dictatorship. “My family escaped communism, and my daughter is misguided as to the benefits that political system provides, it flat out doesn’t work,” he said.
Medina herself has responded to her father’s critiques. “My dad is a rich anti-Castro p.b. liberal Cuban(born)-American & I am a broke pro-Castro w.c. Communist Cuban-American,” Media tweeted last year.
She added that Communism is scary “only if you are a literal capitalist, war criminal, or nazi.”
“Communism is about equality, democracy, peace, the advancement of workers, the oppressed, and humanity in general. It is true the path there will be unkind to those who block progress, but Communism is good and should not scare you, but excits [sic] you,” she tweeted.
Evidently, she left the Ocasio-Cortez campaign on cordial terms.
Ocasio-Cortez still follows her on Twitter, as of Monday.
Take a look —
Justine Medina, an ex-aide to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is now working as a senior official in the New York State Communist Party. pic.twitter.com/xzedBcf54F
— Eye On Antisemitism (@AntisemitismEye) May 14, 2023
Friends, I have an announcement to make 😉 pic.twitter.com/wFLU7Soo8z
— Justine Medina (@jnmedina8989) May 13, 2023
The Horn editorial team