Ocasio-Cortez endorses Teachout for attorney general

Many female politicians have chosen to have events in front of the Fearless Girl statue in lower Manhattan, including Rep. Carolyn Maloney and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. State attorney general hopeful Zephyr Teachout, however, chose to be endorsed by current political “it” girl Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a few feet away, in front of the Charging Bull statue.

While it may seem odd for an anti-corruption candidate to hold an event before the very symbol of Wall Street excess, Teachout said the location had symbolic meaning. When she was growing up “in the country,” Teachout said, her family had a bull calf that escaped its pen. Her father asked her to “run after the bull and tickle its nose and then run back inside the fence and get it back inside the fence.”

Teachout completed her father’s mission successfully, and said it had a deeper moral lesson: “I’m not afraid of any bullies.” The secondary reason for the locale, she said, was to highlight the corruption of corporate Wall Street firms donating to candidates, which she said she would challenge.