Netflix documentary on campaigns of four Democratic women, including Ocasio-Cortez, set to be released in May
CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 4/24/2019, 11:41 a.m.
By Devan Cole, CNN
(CNN) -- Netflix is set to release a new documentary early next month that chronicles the 2018 congressional campaigns of four Democratic women, including prominent freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The film, "Knock Down The House," will hit the streaming platform May 1 and will profile the 2018 campaign of Ocasio-Cortez, who represents New York, and the failed 2018 House primary campaigns of Amy Vilela of Nevada and Cori Bush of Missouri, as well as the failed Senate primary bid of Paula Jean Swearengin of West Virginia.
"If I was a rational person, I would have dropped out of this race a long time ago," Ocasio-Cortez said in a trailer for the documentary released this week. The New Yorker, who identifies as a Democratic Socialist, defeated longtime Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley last summer during a primary challenge. Since coming to Washington, she has gained a national following of supporters and amassed a considerable amount of influence among the party's more progressive House members.
Netflix lists Ocasio-Cortez as a "starring" cast member in the documentary that it says goes "behind the scenes" to show how the four women "challenge big-money politicians in the 2018 race for Congress."
Vilela, who said on her website that her foray into politics came after her daughter's "needless death at the hands of our profit-driven healthcare system," said in the preview that she's "not going to allow (her) daughter to have died for nothing." Vilela, whose campaign largely focused on health care, lost her primary campaign to now-Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford.
Bush, who in the preview notes her proximity to Ferguson, Missouri, and says she "was not trying to become an activist," lost her primary bid to incumbent Democratic Rep. Lacy Clay last year, while Paula Jean Swearengin, who tried unsuccessfully to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin last year, says that she "come(s) from a long line of coal miners" that have become "collateral damage."
According to Netflix, the documentary has an 87-minute running time.