"Knew about them" ? The party leadership knows all about them.   These people did not get elected by accident.  They were hand-picked.  In my opinion, O'Rourke and Ocasio Cortez were going to be the new Hill and Bill.  You can see the writing already on the wall for AOC and Tlaib, they are  going down,   O'Rourke is still pretty much being left alone but there may only be a smouldering ruin of a Party to push him when his turn was scheduled, after Biden/and Warren or Bloomberg or whoever they were going to trot out there.