Ocasio Cortez Origin

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez believes that 'a system that allows billionaires to exist' is immoral, the freshman congresswoman said at an event celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Born on October 13, 1989, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez grew up in the city of the Bronx with her parents Sergio Ocasio and Blanca Ocasio-Cortez. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez father is an American architect while her mother used to be a citizen of Puerto Rico. In age, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is currently 29 years. Oct 13, 1989 Born to a working-class Puerto Rican family in the Bronx, New York, Ocasio-Cortez graduated from Boston University, majoring in economics and international relations, and worked for Senator Ted. US Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been making ripples ever since she won the Democratic Party's primary election for New York's 14th congressional district back in January. More recently, her 'Green New Deal' proposal calling for a drastic overhaul of the American economy has been a one-of-a-kind in America’s political.

Who is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? After the primary elections in New York Tuesday night, the internet is abuzz with talk of this one particular New Yorker. Here’s what you need to know.

Who is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?

Ocasio Cortez Twitter

Ocasio-Cortez is a 28-year-old New Yorker who was born in the Bronx to Puerto Rican parents — her mother was born in Puerto Rico and her father in the Bronx. She grew up in a working-class household, she notes on her website, where her father was a small business owner, her mother cleaned homes and everyone pitched in.

Ocasio-Cortez attended public school 40 minutes north of the Bronx in Yorktown. That 40-minute commute opened her eyes to the effects of income inequality. To her, the commute represented “a vastly different quality of available schooling, economic opportunity, and health outcomes.”

In 2008, her father died of cancer and her family was thrown into a financial crisis. To support her mother, Ocasio-Cortez worked “two jobs and 18-hour shifts in restaurants to help her family keep their home.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez primary election win

Here’s why everyone is talking about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: On Tuesday, she defeated incumbent Joseph Crowley in the New York congressional primary election.

Rep. Crowley, 56, is the fourth-highest ranking Democrat in the House, chair of the House Democratic Caucus and the Queens Democratic Party and was thought by many to be the next speaker of the House. He’s served in Congress since 1999 and hasn’t had a primary challenger in 14 years.

Enter Ocasio-Cortez: she beat out Crowley in the primary for New York’s 14th District, which covers the eastern Bronx and north-central Queens. Ocasio-Cortez won with 57.5 percent of the vote. If she wins in November, she’ll be the youngest person in Congress.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez political views

Ocasio-Cortez is a Democratic Socialist, and she campaigned on several progressive issues. She wants Medicare for all, a federal jobs guarantee program which would provide a baseline of $15-an-hour minimum wage and a benefits package, and tuition-free public college and trade schools.

She wants to abolish ICE, calling for immigration justice that provides a path to citizenship, she advocates for criminal justice reform and the end to for-profit prisons, an assault-weapons ban and more action against climate change.

Ocasio-Cortez also wants more solidarity with Puerto Rico. She laid out a plan on her website for actions like the cancellation of the island Wall Street debt, community-led recovery initiatives and a Marshall Plan to help Puerto Rico not just recover from Hurricane Maria but improve with modern infrastructure.

How Old Is Ocasio Cortez

And, of course, she’s fighting for women’s rights — she’s called out news articles that refused to put her name in headlines and ran a campaign video in which she says, “Women like me aren’t supposed to run for office.”

It’s time for a New York that works for all of us.

On June 26th, we can make it happen – but only if we have the #CourageToChange.

It’s time to get to work. Please retweet this video and sign up to knock doors + more at https://t.co/kacKFI9RtI to bring our movement to Congress. pic.twitter.com/aqKMjovEjZ

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) May 30, 2018

What did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez do before her run for Congress?

Though a political newcomer, Ocasio-Cortez does have some experience in the political world. She organized for Sen. Bernie Sanders during his run for the 2016 presidential primary. She worked with high school students as an Educational Director with National Hispanic Institute and spearheaded projects to improve childhood literacy and writing in the Bronx.

On election day, she retweeted a photo that showed her working as a bartender — from one year ago, Nov. 2017.

This photo is from Nov. 14, 2017. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 28, was then working as a bartender.

Less than a year later, she defeated the likely next Speaker of the House, and will almost certainly be the youngest woman ever elected to Congress pic.twitter.com/JgHjdQWAF6

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) June 27, 2018

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday once again called on Sen. Ted Cruz to resign, while taking the Texan to task for his role in inciting the January 6 attack by supporters of former President Donald Trump on the U.S. Capitol that the congresswoman says nearly ended her life.

Her suggestion followed Democrats' call for a congressional investigation of Robinhood, the free securities trading app at the center of the GameStop controversy, and what Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called its 'decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit.'

'Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren't trying to get me killed.'
—Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

As Common Dreamsreported earlier Thursday, the retail video game store GameStop 'is now at the center of an explosive fiasco on Wall Street in which major investment firms and hedge funds got taken to the cleaners by users of an online message board, namely the Reddit sub-page r/WallStreetBets, who mobilized collectively to drive up the company's stock price at a moment when many large, institutional investors had placed large bets for it to go down.'

Cruz (R-Texas) tweeted that he agreed with Ocasio-Cortez's assessment, but she rejected the fleeting display of bipartisanship in light of the events of January 6.

As Mother Jones' Inae Oh put it, 'After Ted Cruz attempted to get cute and show some rare agreement with the New York congresswoman by joining her criticism of the trading app Robinhood for blocking certain GameStop trades, Ocasio-Cortez promptly told Cruz to fuck off.'

Here's what it looked like:

I am happy to work with Republicans on this issue where there’s common ground, but you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago so you can sit this one out.

Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren’t trying to get me killed.

In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign. https://t.co/4mVREbaqqm

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 28, 2021

You haven’t even apologized for the serious physical + mental harm you contributed to from Capitol Police & custodial workers to your own fellow members of Congress.

In the meantime, you can get off my timeline & stop clout-chasing. Thanks.

Happy to work with other GOP on this.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 28, 2021

That wasn't the end of it. After Cruz reportedly fumed about 'partisan rage and anger on the Democratic side,' Ocasio-Cortez shot back: 'Now why would there be anger that Cruz amplified known lies about our election that fueled an insurrection that cost [people's] lives? What does he think the logical response to his lies should be? A hug?'

“We need healing + unity, but I will not take any responsibility for my actions, nor will I acknowledge the contributions my lies made to the violence or the harm that it caused, nor do I believe anyone should be held accountable. But if you’re mad at that you’re divisive.” - GOP

Get our best delivered to your inbox.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 28, 2021

Much proverbial popcorn was passed:

looking forward to Ted Cruz' op-ed about how AOC is censoring him by telling him to STFU https://t.co/ZFjlFIXApL

— Evan Greer (@evan_greer) January 28, 2021

It’s getting weirder and weirder.

— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) January 28, 2021

Ocasio-Cortez described the seriousness of the events of January 6 in a poignant Instagram Live video earlier this month in which she called the Capitol attack 'a pretty traumatizing event.'

Ocasio-Cortez and other lawmakers were inside the Capitol and in the process of certifying the Electoral College vote for President Joe Biden when a massive mob, inflamed by Trump's lies and conspiracy theories about a 'stolen election' also spread by Cruz and other Republicans, overran the complex.

Five people died in the ensuing mayhem as lawmakers—including numerous maskless coronavirus-spreading Republicans and at least one GOP member who has menaced Squad members before—scrambled for the security of a safe room.

'I can tell you that I had a very close encounter where I thought I was going to die,' Ocasio-Cortez said in the video. 'I did not know if I was going to make it to the end of that day alive.'

Ocasio-Cortez subsequently called on Cruz, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), and other GOP inciters to resign.

'Sen. Cruz, you must accept responsibility for how your craven, self-serving actions contributed to the deaths of four people yesterday,' she tweeted on January 7, hours before United States Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died from injuries caused by the mob.

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez

“Let's bring up a vote to expel Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley from the Senate.” -@AOCpic.twitter.com/rHvZgpGoHX

— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) January 22, 2021

Ocasio Cortez Stupid

Ocasio-Cortez has since repeated calls for Cruz, Hawley, and other insurrectionist Republicans to be expelled from Congress.