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It was only 11 months ago when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shocked the political world with a primary upset of Representative Joseph Crowley, the No. 4 Democrat in the House and a mainstay in the Queens Democratic machine.

Then the youngest woman ever elected to Congress took Washington by storm, using her savvy social media skills to help achieve mainstream buy-in for ideas once deemed too far left for Democrats.

Now Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, 29, may be testing the extent of her influence back home: In a hotly contested seven-way Democratic primary for Queens district attorney, she has decided to endorse Tiffany Cabán, the candidate whose platform most echoes the first-term congresswoman’s.

“Our criminal justice system needs to change,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez told The New York Times in a statement. “New Yorkers deserve a seat at the table, and a champion who will fight to realign our priorities toward equal treatment under the law. If Tiffany Cabán wins, things are going to change.”

The Democratic primary on June 25 is seen as something of a referendum on whether a diverse borough like Queens is ready to embrace the liberal criminal justice reforms — aimed at ending the era of mass incarceration — that are sweeping the country.

At the same time, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez may also get some sense if her win in the 14th Congressional District, which covers parts of Queens and the Bronx, can be extrapolated to a boroughwide race with more than one million registered voters.

Ms. Cabán, 31, is only the second person Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed since being sworn in. This month, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Raul Fernandez, a candidate for the Brookline Select Board in Massachusetts.

Mr. Fernandez, a friend from her time attending Boston University, won a three-year term. Now Ms. Cabán is hoping an endorsement from Ms. Ocasio-Cortez will help distinguish her in a crowded field.

“We are proud of all the endorsements we have gotten, but this is a big deal,” Ms. Cabán, who previously worked as a public defender, said. “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a progressive champion and she’s been an inspiration for me. It shows that we are building a national, grass-roots progressive movement.”

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement was one of the most sought after among progressive candidates in the race to replace the longtime district attorney, Richard A. Brown, who died May 4 from complications of Parkinson’s disease. Mr. Brown had previously announced he would resign on June 1, the 28th anniversary of his taking the office.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who has more than 4 million followers on Twitter, is expected to send an email to her supporters this week announcing her endorsement and asking them to donate to Ms. Cabán.

“Instead of criminalizing poverty, we’re going to dedicate resources toward prosecuting abusive landlords,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said. “Instead of targeting people who use marijuana, we can go after the drug companies that took advantage of working-class folks for profit.”

She added: “We can end broken-windows policing and rebuild the relationship between our communities, and the justice system that’s supposed to work for us. We can end cash bail, so that the rich and poor are held equal in the eyes of the law.”

Ms. Cabán could not be more ideologically different than Mr. Brown.

She is in favor of closing Rikers Island, but she does not support the plan to build new borough-based jails. She is in favor of ending the prosecution of drug use and supports fully decriminalizing prostitution, including for the clients. She is also a proponent of ending cash bail for all crimes.

Ms. Cabán has received endorsements from the Democratic Socialists of America, VOCAL-NY, Real Justice PAC and the Working Families Party, among others.

Also running for Queens district attorney are Melinda Katz, the Queens borough president; Greg Lasak, a former judge who also worked as a senior prosecutor under Mr. Brown; Betty Lugo, a lawyer; Rory Lancman, a councilman from Queens; Jose Nieves, who worked in the New York attorney general’s office as a deputy chief in the special investigations and prosecutions unit; and Mina Malik, a former prosecutor in Queens and Brooklyn and a deputy attorney general in the District of Columbia.

Ms. Katz has collected strong institutional support with endorsements from several powerful unions and politicians such as Representatives Gregory Meeks and Carolyn B. Maloney; Carl E. Heastie, the speaker of the State Assembly; and Rubén Díaz Jr., the Bronx borough president. Mr. Meeks was elected chairman of the Queens County Democratic Party, replacing Mr. Crowley.

Ms. Cabán said she had spoken only once previously with Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, but it was clear that their values aligned when they spoke before the endorsement. “We talked about racial, social and economic justice,” said Ms. Cabán, who described Ms. Ocasio-Cortez as an inspiration.

“Having an example of a working-class Latina woman who made it work because the community rallied around her resonated with me, a queer Latina,” Ms. Cabán said. “I never thought in a million years I would have the privilege to run for office because the barriers seemed too great.”

Bruce Gyory, an adjunct professor of political science at the University at Albany, said that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement could be a game-changer but that it does not come without political risk.

“If Katz wins big, it’s a devaluing of the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez political currency. Other legislators will ask: ‘Why should I be afraid?” Professor Gyory said. “If she powers Cabán to victory, then the giant killer strikes twice. There won’t be enough Pepto-Bismol in the Bronx or Queens for incumbent legislators.”

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