QUEENS, N.Y. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , a 28-year-old Latina community organizer and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, pulled off a historic upset on Tuesday, unseating Rep. Joseph Crowley (N.Y.), the House Democratic Caucus chairman, in the primary.

Since New Yorks 14th Congressional District is a safe Democratic seat, Ocasio-Cortez is now almost certain to represent the district in Congress where she will be one of the youngest and most progressive members.

Last week, HuffPost caught up with Ocasio-Cortez after a campaign news conference in the Elmhurst neighborhood. Ocasio-Cortez discussed her campaign strategy, New Yorks regressive election rules, her criticism of Crowley, her priorities if elected, and how she plans to use her organizing experience to pass progressive legislation on Capitol Hill.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

This community has been changing for a long time and yet there has still been the same representation for a long time. What are you doing to make sure that people who dont normally vote, or dont even know about the primary, are turning out?

When we say there is a machine in Queens, what does a machine mean? A machine means that you mobilize the people that have already been there. You tap your local city councilman that has been appointed, you tap your local assemblyman to do that work for you.

But what were doing is were doing that work for ourselves.

What I think is really important is courting people in the community who are really never spoken to, and really just walking that walk throughout our campaign. There are very little things that make a big difference. The fact that all of our literature is bilingual it tells people we are talking to them and that they arent being spoken to second or third but that they are spoken to first along with the English-speaking [people] and everybody else as well. Thats what we are really trying to communicate here, not just with the Latino community but with the Bengali community, with the Mandarin-speaking community. We campaign in about four languages, at least.

Walking that walk, speaking out to a community thats normally not spoken to, we are getting a response. Because theres usually a self-fulfilling prophecy where people say, This community doesnt vote so Im not gonna knock on their door. And everything from our field to our messaging is an invitation to participate for the first time. When we make that very clear not just in our actions, but the way that we speak, the community responds.

Do you think the New York primary system is set up to protect incumbents and even suppress votes? For example, the state has two separate primary days for state and federal elections.

Theres no question. Its an open secret that New York is one of the worst offenders in voter suppression in the United States. In 2016, we had the second-lowest primary turnout, second only to Louisiana.

There is kind of a false pretense that the state and leaders in the state participate in, that voter suppression is a Southern problem. And its not. New York is one of the worst offenders. We are one of the only Democratic states in the country that doesnt have early voting, that doesnt have same-day voter registration, that has closed primaries, that doesnt have mail-in ballots. All of these things are so easy to remedy, and it is absolutely our leadership that refuses to change them. They should be held responsible for it.

Is Joe Crowley one of those people who has stood by the system of voter suppression? Does the system benefit him?

The system benefits incumbents and the system benefits those who have historically had power. He is absolutely a participant because he accepted being named to this seat [in a way that prevented a primary in 1998].

When you look at how he ascended to power even people in the machine in Queens at that time were shocked by how backroom it was.

The fact that he even accepted it is wrong.

Youve talked a lot about the kind of donations that Rep. Crowley has taken and how that distinguishes your candidacies in a significant way. Is there a specific example of a policy that you believe he voted for that was motivated by a conflict of interest?

In 2015, he voted for a foreign real estate bill that basically deregulated foreign luxury real estate developers. The Sunlight Foundation documented that, right ahead of that vote, he received a surge of donations from the real estate industry. And he not just voted for this bill, he authored the bill and passed the bill.

Since passing the bill, the median price of a two-bedroom [apartment] in Queens has gone up 80 percent.

Thats outrageous! Such a jarring change is completely unsustainable for the working families here. It is a deliberate displacement of this community.