What to Know Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, CNBC's former chief international correspondent, filed for a primary challenge to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Caruso-Cabrera is seeking to unseat the progressive leader who shocked the political establishment with her 2018 election

CNBC said Caruso-Cabrera will no longer appear on their air now that she is a candidate

Former CNBC anchor Michelle Caruso-Cabrera will challenge progressive leader Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her Bronx-Queens seat in Congress, she said on Tuesday.

Caruso-Cabrera told CNBC she will make a primary bid for the seat, which Ocasio-Cortez won in a political earthquake in 2018. The congresswoman, popularly known as AOC, has become a leader of the progressive movement in the Democratic party in her year in Washington.

It was not immediately clear why Caruso-Cabrera, who left her full-time CNBC role in 2018, had decided to take on Ocasio-Cortez.

But her 2010 book, "You Know I'm Right: More Prosperity, Less Government," is a paean to limited government and fiscal conservatism -- a stance that puts her well to the right of AOC, even within the Democratic Party.

In an exclusive interview with NBC New York’s Melissa Russo, Democratic Queens Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she’s had to adjust to her new life in the public eye. She also spoke about her support for Bernie Sanders for president, and if she has any plans to run for mayor of NYC.

“I am the daughter and granddaughter of working class Italian and Cuban immigrants,” Caruso-Cabrera said in a statement. “I am so lucky to have had such a wonderful career and I want everybody to have the opportunity that I’ve had. That’s why I’m running.”

CNBC said in a story posted on its website that Caruso-Cabrera would no longer appear as a contributor on the network.

This is a developing story.

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