Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Official portrait, 2018
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Born	13 10, 1989
Birthplace	New York City, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Politician, activist
Known for	Youngest woman elected to the United States Congress; Green New Deal; member of "the Squad"
Education	Boston University (BA)
Website	[ocasio-cortez.house.gov Official site]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (born October 13, 1989), also known by her initials AOC, is an American politician and activist who has served as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district since January 3, 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she first won national attention in June 2018 when, at the age of 28, she defeated ten-term incumbent and Democratic Caucus Chair Joe Crowley in the Democratic primary election — a result that became one of the most discussed primary upsets of that election cycle. Taking office at age 29, Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. She was subsequently reelected in 2020, 2022, and 2024. Alongside Rashida Tlaib, she was one of the first two female members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) elected to Congress. A leader of the left-wing faction of the Democratic Party and a member of the informal progressive congressional bloc known as "the Squad," Ocasio-Cortez advocates a progressive platform that includes Medicare for All, tuition-free public colleges, a federal jobs guarantee, a Green New Deal, the abolition of ICE, and support for worker cooperatives.

Early Life

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born on October 13, 1989, in New York City. Her family has roots in Puerto Rico; her father, Sergio Ocasio-Roman, was born in the Bronx to a Puerto Rican family, and her mother, Blanca Ocasio-Cortez, was born in Puerto Rico. She grew up in the Bronx, in a working-class household. She has a younger brother, Gabriel Ocasio-Cortez.

During her childhood, her family moved to Yorktown Heights, a suburb in Westchester County, so that she and her brother could attend better-resourced public schools. This experience — of commuting between the relative affluence of the suburbs and the working-class Bronx where much of her extended family remained — shaped her understanding of economic inequality in the United States, a theme she would later emphasize in her political career.

Her father, Sergio, ran a small architecture firm. His death in 2008, when Ocasio-Cortez was a college student, placed significant financial strain on the family. Her mother took on cleaning jobs and drove a school bus to keep the household afloat and avoid foreclosure on the family home. Ocasio-Cortez has cited this period as formative in her political development, as the family's struggle with debt and the financial system influenced her views on economic policy.

Education

Ocasio-Cortez attended Yorktown High School, where she excelled academically. She then enrolled at Boston University, where she studied international relations and economics, graduating cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2011. During her time at Boston University, she interned in the immigration office of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy. This experience exposed her to the complexities of U.S. immigration policy and the challenges faced by immigrant communities, a topic that would later become central to her legislative advocacy.

Career

Pre-Political Career

After graduating from Boston University in 2011, Ocasio-Cortez returned to the Bronx and took on multiple jobs to help support her family following her father's death. She worked as a bartender and waitress in Manhattan, experiences she has frequently cited as shaping her understanding of the economic pressures facing working-class Americans. Her service-industry background later became both a point of identification for her supporters and a subject of commentary from political opponents; as recently as February 2026, her bartending past was referenced in a remark by Republican Senator John Kennedy, prompting a defense from fellow Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna.

Ocasio-Cortez was also involved in community organizing. She served as an educational director for the National Hispanic Institute and worked on issue advocacy related to higher education, immigration, and economic inequality. She launched a small publishing venture called Brook Avenue Press, which sought to portray the Bronx in a positive light through children's literature.

2018 Congressional Campaign

In 2018, Ocasio-Cortez mounted a primary challenge against Joe Crowley, a ten-term Democratic incumbent who had represented New York's 14th congressional district since 1999 and served as chair of the House Democratic Caucus. Crowley was considered a powerful figure within the Democratic Party and was frequently mentioned as a potential future Speaker of the House. Ocasio-Cortez ran on a progressive platform that included Medicare for All, a federal jobs guarantee, the abolition of ICE, tuition-free public college, and support for housing as a right.

Her campaign was notably grassroots in nature. She was outspent significantly by Crowley but compensated through extensive door-to-door canvassing and an active social media presence. Her campaign film, Courage to Change, which depicted her daily routine working as a bartender while preparing for the election, attracted significant attention online.

On June 26, 2018, Ocasio-Cortez defeated Crowley by a margin of approximately 15 percentage points in the Democratic primary, winning 57% of the vote to Crowley's 42%. The result was described by CNN as a "major Democratic House primary upset" and prompted extensive national media coverage. Mother Jones described her as "the 28-year-old who took down Joe Crowley." Because the 14th district is heavily Democratic, her primary victory was tantamount to election. She went on to win the general election in November 2018 and took office on January 3, 2019, at age 29, becoming the youngest woman ever to serve in Congress.

First Term in Congress (2019–2021)

Upon taking office, Ocasio-Cortez quickly became one of the most prominent freshmen in congressional history. She garnered significant media attention and rapidly amassed a large social media following. By November 2018, her Twitter following had surpassed that of many senior House Democrats, making her one of the most-followed members of Congress on social media.

One of her most significant early legislative actions was the introduction, alongside Senator Ed Markey, of a resolution for a Green New Deal — a sweeping proposal to address climate change while simultaneously tackling economic inequality and creating jobs. The resolution called for a ten-year national mobilization to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, create millions of high-wage jobs, and invest in infrastructure and industry. While the resolution did not pass the Senate, it shifted the terms of the national debate on climate policy and became a defining element of the progressive policy agenda.

Ocasio-Cortez, alongside Representatives Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib, became known as a member of "the Squad," an informal group of progressive Democratic congresswomen who entered Congress together in the 2018 elections. The group drew both praise from progressive supporters and criticism from more centrist Democrats and Republican opponents. As a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Ocasio-Cortez brought democratic socialist ideas into mainstream congressional discourse.

During her first term, she served on the House Committee on Financial Services and the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, using her committee positions to question witnesses during high-profile hearings. Her questioning style, which often incorporated detailed preparation and direct lines of inquiry, drew media attention.

Reelection Campaigns

Ocasio-Cortez was reelected in 2020, 2022, and 2024, each time winning her Democratic primary and the general election by substantial margins. Her continued victories demonstrated her strong support base within the 14th congressional district, which encompasses parts of the Bronx and Queens in New York City.

Foreign Policy and the Munich Security Conference (2026)

In February 2026, Ocasio-Cortez attended the Munich Security Conference, marking a notable foray into international diplomacy and foreign policy. Her appearance at the conference generated significant media coverage and political debate. During the event, she addressed questions on topics including Taiwan and broader U.S. foreign policy, and some of her responses drew criticism from political opponents who characterized them as missteps.

President Donald Trump criticized her performance at the conference, calling it "horrible" and directing personal insults at the congresswoman. Ocasio-Cortez subsequently responded to the criticism in a public statement, pushing back against her detractors and defending her engagement with foreign policy issues.

The episode was analyzed by some commentators as an early indication of potential positioning for the 2028 presidential race, with Salon framing the Munich appearances of Ocasio-Cortez and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as a possible preview of a future political contest. The New York Post reported that a senior Republican figure suggested Ocasio-Cortez could be a future presidential candidate.

The Munich episode also illustrated the unusual cross-partisan dynamics that occasionally surround Ocasio-Cortez. After Senator John Kennedy mocked her bartending background in the context of the Munich criticism, Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna publicly defended Ocasio-Cortez, calling Kennedy's remarks "tone deaf" and criticizing the dismissal of working-class experience.

Policy Positions

Ocasio-Cortez has advocated for a range of progressive policy positions throughout her congressional career. Her platform, as outlined during her initial 2018 campaign and expanded upon during her time in office, includes:

• Medicare for All — a single-payer healthcare system that would replace private insurance for basic health coverage
• Green New Deal — a comprehensive approach to climate change that pairs environmental policy with economic development and job creation
• Tuition-free public college — eliminating tuition at public universities and colleges
• Federal jobs guarantee — a government program to ensure employment for all Americans who want to work
• Abolition of ICE — restructuring or eliminating U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
• Worker cooperatives — promotion of employee-owned business models
• Housing as a right — expanding affordable housing and addressing homelessness

As a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Ocasio-Cortez has sought to normalize democratic socialist ideas within American political discourse. She has drawn comparisons between her policy positions and those of social democratic governments in Scandinavia, while also grounding her platform in American progressive traditions.

Personal Life

Ocasio-Cortez resides in the Bronx. She is engaged to Riley Roberts, a web developer and marketing consultant whom she met while both were students at Boston University. The couple became engaged in 2022.

She has been open about her family's financial difficulties, including the debt they faced after her father's death and the challenges of affording housing in both New York City and Washington, D.C. Before taking office, she publicly discussed the difficulty of affording rent in Washington during the transition period before her congressional salary began.

Ocasio-Cortez has Puerto Rican heritage and identifies as Latina. She is bilingual, speaking both English and Spanish, and has occasionally addressed Spanish-speaking constituents and media in Spanish.

Recognition

Ocasio-Cortez's 2018 primary victory over Joe Crowley drew immediate and sustained national media attention, establishing her as one of the most recognizable figures in American politics. CNN described her win as a "major" upset, and the race was covered extensively as a signal of the rising influence of progressive politics within the Democratic Party.

Her social media presence has been a distinctive aspect of her public profile. By late 2018, her Twitter following surpassed that of most other House Democrats, making her one of the most digitally influential members of Congress. She has used platforms including Twitter, Instagram, and other social media to communicate directly with constituents and the broader public, bypassing traditional media channels.

Ocasio-Cortez has been the subject of extensive media coverage from outlets across the political spectrum. Mother Jones profiled her extensively during her 2018 campaign, The New York Times published multiple biographical and analytical pieces, and she has been a frequent subject of commentary on both progressive and conservative media platforms. The Netflix documentary Knock Down the House (2019) chronicled her 2018 primary campaign alongside those of three other progressive female candidates.

She has been featured on the cover of Time magazine and has appeared on numerous lists of influential political figures. Her influence on the national political conversation, particularly regarding climate policy through the Green New Deal proposal, has been noted by commentators across the ideological spectrum.

Legacy

Ocasio-Cortez's impact on American politics, while still unfolding given her active career, has already been the subject of significant analysis. Her 2018 primary victory against a deeply entrenched incumbent demonstrated that grassroots campaigns with limited funding could compete against well-funded establishment candidates, a model that has since been emulated by other progressive challengers across the country.

As the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, she expanded the demographic profile of the institution and drew attention to questions of generational representation in American government. Alongside the other members of the Squad, she contributed to a shift in the Democratic Party's internal debate, pushing progressive policy proposals such as the Green New Deal and Medicare for All into mainstream political discourse.

Her status as one of the first two female DSA members elected to Congress marked a notable development in the history of democratic socialism in the United States. While socialist ideas had been represented in Congress before — as noted by In These Times, which drew comparisons to early 20th-century socialist legislators — Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib brought the label back into the congressional arena after a long absence.

Her use of social media as a tool for direct political communication has been studied as a model for how younger politicians can build a public platform outside traditional media structures. Whether as a representative, a potential future candidate for higher office, or an influential voice within progressive politics, Ocasio-Cortez remains a central figure in American political discourse as of 2026.