Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (born October 13, 1989, Bronx, New York, U.S.) is an American politician and activist who began representing New York’s 14th congressional district (NY-14) in 2019. Taking office at the age of 29, she became the youngest woman to serve in the U.S. Congress. Ocasio-Cortez identifies as a democratic socialist and is known for her progressive politics and for her skillful use of social media to connect with young voters. In 2024 she comfortably won reelection against Republican challenger Tina Forte.

Early life and career

Ocasio-Cortez was born into a working-class family that resided in the Bronx, a borough of New York City. Her father, Sergio Ocasio-Roman, was of Puerto Rican descent and owned a small architectural firm, and her mother, Blanca Ocasio-Cortez (née Cortez), was born in Puerto Rico and cleaned houses. When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was about five years old, her parents moved her and her younger brother, Gabriel Ocasio-Cortez, to Yorktown Heights, an affluent suburb located 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of New York City. There they hoped the children could go to better schools, and, indeed, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez learned early on how her location offered her more educational opportunities than those of her cousins who remained in the Bronx. Ocasio-Cortez graduated from Yorktown High School in 2007 and enrolled at Boston University. Like many college-bound students of her generation, she obtained student loans to pay her tuition. In 2008 she interned at the foreign affairs and immigration office of Sen. Ted Kennedy, where she worked until his death in 2009. She later spoke about how the experience offered her a firsthand look at the distress families underwent after being separated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

By then Ocasio-Cortez had also suffered hardship. Her father had died of lung cancer in 2008. He left no will, and the struggle to process the estate, combined with paying his medical bills, put her and her family under immense financial strain. Her mother took extra work as a school bus driver to support herself. In 2011 Ocasio-Cortez graduated cum laude with degrees in both international relations and economics. Her postcollege career was similar to that of many graduates seeking work following the Great Recession. She returned to the Bronx, where she took a job in the nonprofit sector and supplemented that income by bartending and waiting tables. Ocasio-Cortez nonetheless lived paycheck to paycheck with high monthly expenses that included $200 for an Affordable Care Act health insurance plan with a large deductible and $300 toward repaying her student debt.

“Turning point”

In 2016 Ocasio-Cortez served as an organizer for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign. That December the future congresswoman took a cross-country road trip with friends. They visited Flint, Michigan, where tens of thousands of residents had been exposed to dangerous levels of lead in their water, and they also joined the Standing Rock Indian Reservation protests against the building of the Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines. According to Ocasio-Cortez, her experience was a personal “tipping point.” She told TIME in 2019 that, after the trip, she became “more galvanized and more open to taking risks.” Meanwhile, her brother submitted her name to Brand New Congress, a political action committee, and she soon received a call asking if she would run for office. Ocasio-Cortez agreed and began her campaign for the NY-14 congressional seat in 2017, while still bartending in New York City’s Union Square.

Campaign for the NY-14 congressional seat

Ocasio-Cortez faced a David-and-Goliath kind of primary: her opponent, incumbent Joe Crowley, was a powerful Democrat who had held the seat since 1999. He was the chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Democratic Caucus, the subgroup in which every House Democrat is a member and which elects the leaders of the House Democrats, approves committee assignments, and helps develop legislative priorities. Crowley was also an experienced fundraiser; by the end of the primary his political expenditures totaled $4.3 million. By contrast, Ocasio-Cortez, who relied on grassroots volunteers and donations, raised some $300,000, and she received only the endorsements of a few particularly left-wing organizations, including the Democratic Socialists of America (of which Ocasio-Cortez was a member). Nevertheless, Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign promising a Green New Deal, Medicare for All, a federal jobs guarantee, and the abolition of ICE defeated Crowley by 15 points, with 57.13 percent (15,897 votes) for Ocasio-Cortez and 42.5 percent (11,761 votes) for Crowley. Because NY-14 leans heavily Democratic, the primary win all but ensured her the congressional seat. Sworn in on January 3, 2019, Ocasio-Cortez became the first woman of color to represent NY-14 and the youngest woman and Latina in history elected to Congress.

First term: The Green New Deal

Ocasio-Cortez’s long-shot win, combined with her socialist stances and personal charisma, instantly made her a national media sensation. On cable and broadcast news networks, as well as in major newspapers, the freshman congresswoman received an extraordinary amount of coverage. She used the attention to lay out a sweeping vision for the future of the country, introducing as her first piece of legislation a 14-page resolution, “Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal.” The manifesto-like document, which received 101 cosponsors, called for a “10-year national mobilization” that would end dependence on fossil fuels while addressing economic and social injustice. The legislation did not pass, but it started a long-delayed discussion among politicians in Washington about legislation to slow climate change. During the rest of her first term, the congresswoman passed amendments to fund treatment for opioid addiction, clean up toxic bomb-testing sites in Puerto Rico, and reimburse funeral expenses to Americans whose family members died from COVID-19.

Second term

Handily winning reelection in November of 2020, Ocasio-Cortez was sworn in for her second term in Congress on January 3, 2021. Days later the congresswoman found herself hiding in her office during the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack, an attempt by supporters of Donald Trump to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. Ocasio-Cortez later voted in favour of Donald Trump’s second impeachment for having incited the event, and she called for any members of Congress who had likewise encouraged the insurrection to be expelled. The following month, the congresswoman revealed in an Instagram Live video that she was once sexually assaulted and likened Republicans’ downplaying of the insurrection to the tactics of abusers. The congresswoman eventually expanded on that personal experience while at a rally for reproductive rights. She disclosed that she had been raped at the age of 23.

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In 2021, during her second term, Ocasio-Cortez voted for the American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion economic relief package aiming to help the country recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which added amendments to the Paycheck Protection Program, but she broke with her party by voting against the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act due to its lack of social safety net provisions.

Third term

In 2022 Ocasio-Cortez ran for a third term unopposed in the Democratic Party and easily dispatched her opponents in the general election. She also announced her engagement to her longtime partner Riley Roberts.