(CNN) On Tuesday night, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pulled off an upset for the ages, knocking off New York Rep. Joe Crowley in a Democratic primary in the 14th District. Given that Ocasio-Cortez came from nowhere -- at 28 she had never run for office before and was given virtually no chance to actually win -- I sought out Dan Janison, a columnist at Newsday for some context of who Ocasio-Cortez is and where she is headed, politically speaking.

Our conversation, conducted via email and edited lightly for flow, is below.

Cillizza: Did ANYONE -- and I mean anyone -- see Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez coming? If so, who?

Janison: Nobody I know was outright predicting it. But there was a lot of buzz about her candidacy.

She was working the Queens part of the district and got very nice receptions at the street-fair level, including liberals in Astoria. A sign of life for her campaign, which I might have taken seriously if covering up close, was her endorsement by the Pan American Democratic Association.

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