Justine Medina, a former political organizer for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), is currently serving as a senior official in the New York State Communist Party. In 2020, Medina worked for AOC for a year and received over $35,000 in payment during that period.
Shortly after the election, Medina transitioned into a full-fledged Marxist and was listed as the “co-chair of the New York Young Communist League” in July 2021, as reported by the Communist Party newspaper People’s World. She is currently mentioned in the same publication as a member of the “Executive Committee of the New York State Communist Party.”
Evidence from social media indicates that Medina’s Marxist beliefs were strong even before and during her time with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez. In an October 2020 tweet, she proudly declared herself a Communist while acknowledging her work for AOC. She further stated that Communism stands for equality, democracy, peace, and the advancement of workers and the oppressed.
Medina’s role during AOC’s campaign included organizing and writing policy language with “Anti-War Veterans & the Peace Movement.”
In a post on the Communist Party website, Medina boasted about her successful efforts to unionize Amazon employees, highlighting her role as a packer at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island. AOC has been a vocal critic of Amazon and has supported unionization efforts within the company.
It is worth noting that Medina has a history of arrests, including incidents during the Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020 and an attempt to vandalize a plaque honoring Fred Trump in Queens. She comes from an affluent background, as her father, Omar Medina, is a wealthy trial lawyer in Tampa. However, Omar Medina has distanced himself from his daughter’s support for the Communist Party, emphasizing that communism does not work based on his family’s experience of escaping such a system.
