News: Mike Casca, the deputy chief of staff to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), will become the new chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
Casca has been with Sanders since the Vermonter’s 2020 presidential campaign. He then went to Capitol Hill as Sanders’ communications director and later became his deputy chief of staff.
Casca declined to comment.
The move, confirmed by several sources, is a big one in progressive politics on Capitol Hill. Ocasio-Cortez is, perhaps, the most prominent progressive lawmaker on Capitol Hill. Her operation frequently is the fulcrum of the grassroots progressive movement.
Although Ocasio-Cortez is not in leadership, she drives much of the conversation on the left. And her political operation is one of the strongest in Congress. She has $5.4 million on hand and routinely raises more than $1 million each quarter.
Casca is replacing Gerardo Bonilla Chavez, who has been with AOC since 2019. Our friend Pablo Manríquez profiled him for The New Republic last week.
— Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan
