New York businesswoman and Jamaican immigrant Scherie Murray launches campaign to unseat Ocasio-Cortez

WASHINGTON – New York businesswoman Scherie Murray announced Wednesday that she is running for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's congressional seat in 2020.

In a series of tweets announcing her candidacy, Murray, who immigrated to New York from Jamaica when she was 9, said Ocasio-Cortez was more "worried about being famous" than representing her constituents.

"There’s a crisis in Queens and it’s called AOC," the Republican said, referring to Ocasio-Cortez by her initials. She said the freshman Democrat "seeks celebrity & publicity" and "thinks public service is not about serving the public, but herself."

Murray said she had experience building bridges "between constituents in our community and the elected officials that represent them, between different nationalities and races, and between political parties." She said Ocasio-Cortez instead favored conflict and criticized her for her role in driving Amazon to abandon its plans to build a second headquarters in New York.

This week, Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pressley and Tlaib have been at the center of a firestorm created after President Donald Trump told the four minority congresswomen, all of whom are U.S. citizens, to "go back" and fix their countries of origin before try to push legislative changes in America.

Murray made an unsuccessful run in a special election for a New York Assembly seat in 2015, losing by more than 85 percentage points. She lost by a similar margin in a 2013 bid for New York City Council.

She is the fourth Republican to file for a run against Ocasio-Cortez, the New York Post reported, joining former police officer John Cummings, journalist Ruth Papazian and building superintendent Miguel Hernandez.

The Republicans will face an uphill battle in New York's heavily Democratic 14th Congressional District, which includes parts of the Bronx and Queens. Ocasio-Cortez won the seat in 2018 with 78% of the vote.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Scherie Murray campaigning to unseat AOC