"This is the first wave of an invasion"

Their primary victories — from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley in the Northeast to Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum in the South — reflect the emerging influence of a younger and more diverse generation of Democrats infuriated not only by President Donald Trump, but by what they view as their own party’s fecklessness in Washington.

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Like the tea party in 2010, the movement’s first victims are members of a congressional wing that’s seen as out of touch at the grass-roots level.

“This is the first wave of an invasion to attack the things that this [younger] generation is experiencing as pain: Student loan debt, lack of affordable health care, the anger and a sense of dis-inclusion,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime Democratic strategist based in New York. “It is the generational revolt of the ’60s that is occurring in the early part of the 21st century. And the issue is less so Trump than it is the condition of a society that they believe will have limited options for them.”

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