Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (13 October 1989-) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-NY 14) from 3 January 2019, succeeding Joseph Crowley.
Biography[]
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born in The Bronx, New York City, New York in 1989 to a family of Puerto Rican descent, and she interned in the immigration office of US Senator Ted Kennedy while studying at Boston University. She graduated in 2011, and she worked as a bartender at a taqueria in Manhattan to help her widowed mother. In 2016, she worked as a community organizer for Bernie Sanders during the 2016 presidential election. In 2018, she challenged Democratic Party incumbent Joseph Crowley during the US House of Representatives election in New York's 14th district, the first Democrat to do so since 2004. A member of the Democratic Socialists of America, she was backed by Black Lives Matter and other progressive organizations, and she campaigned on a platform of Medicare for all, a federal jobs guarantee, tuition-free public college, and the abolition of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. In the primary election on 27 June 2018, she won a surprise victory with a 15% lead over Crowley, one of the biggest upsets in recent American political history. After her victory in the general election, she made history by becoming the youngest woman elected to the US Congress (at age 29, beating Republican Elise Stefanik's record of 30 years old), paying her interns, and using social media to reach out to her constituents. She became a highly controversial congresswoman due to her radical views, and she, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley were nicknamed "The Squad" for being close friends and colleagues. Ocasio-Cortez led "The Squad" and other members of Congress in supporting a "Green New Deal", but it was shot down by both Democrats and Republicans.