Kirsten Anderson - Who Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seemed like an unlikely candidate to take on Joseph Crowley, one of the most powerful Democrats in New York City and in Congress. But the twenty-eight-year-old bartender from the Bronx wanted to make a difference. She passionately believed that everyone should have health care and that climate change was the most urgent fight of our time.

She had walked the neighborhoods of Queens and the Bronx, trying to convince people that it was time for a change. She believed that it was time for their neighborhoods to be represented by someone who actually lived in their district, not in Washington, DC, and that it was time for them to be represented by someone who was more like them. She knew what it was like to work hard all day, as she had at restaurants in Manhattan. AlexandriaAlex to her friendswas a young, working-class Latina from one of the most ethnically diverse areas of New York City.

On the night of June 26, 2018, Alex wasnt expected to win the primary election. Most people thought she didnt have a chance. At one of their debates, Crowley had even congratulated her for bringing in new energy to the race, as if the result had already been decided. No one had even bothered to run against Representative Crowley for the last fourteen years. And now it was almost 9:00 p.m. The voting had ended. Alex got into the back seat of a car and prepared to watch her campaign for a seat in the US House of Representatives come to an end.

Alexs boyfriend, Riley Roberts, parked the car. They started walking toward the campaign party. Win or lose, most campaign workers gather on the night of an election to wait out the results and celebrate, even if its just their own hard work they are cheering for. As they passed by some large windows in the pool hall where the party was being held, Alex caught sight of TVs playing the news. She screamed and ran to the front door.

The security guard there tried to stop her. Alex pointed to a campaign poster and cried, Its me! Its me! Thats me on the poster!

He stepped aside, and she rushed in.

The crowd roared and cheered. Alex gasped and put her hand to her mouth as she looked up at the screens. A TV reporter put a microphone in front of her, asking if she could put into words how she felt right then.

Alex paused for a moment, then said, Nope. I cannot put this into words.

She had won.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a young Puerto Rican woman from the Bronx, had defeated Joseph Crowley. She was on her way to Congress.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born on October 13, 1989, in the Parkchester neighborhood of the Bronx. The Bronx is one of the five boroughs that make up New York City, along with Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. The Bronx is the only borough in New York City that has a majority Hispanic population. Alexs father, Sergio, had been born and raised in the Bronx. His family was Puerto Rican. Sergio became an architect. Her mother, Blanca, had grown up in Puerto Rico.

The Bronx was filled with family and friends, but Alexs parents were worried. In the 1990s, crime and poverty levels were higher in the Bronx than in other parts of New York City.

Sergio wanted to give Alex and her younger brother, Gabriel, a chance to get a better education. Family members helped them pull together enough money to buy a small house in Yorktown, a suburb outside of New York City.

Yorktown was different from the Bronx. Most families lived in houses, not apartments. People traveled in cars, not on subways. Most people were wealthier than Alexs family. The population was mostly white. There were very few other Latino families. At school, Alex felt no one else looked like her.

On weekends, Alex, her parents, and her brother would often go back to the Bronx to visit family. The trip between the Bronx and Yorktown was only forty minutes, but the two places seemed like different worlds. Alex began to think about how much a persons life was affected by where they were born. Some towns had wonderful public schools. A town right next door might have schools that were much worse, depending on how wealthyor poorthe residents might be.

Alex fell in love with science when she was young. She began to dream of becoming a doctor and asked for a microscope for her birthday one year. She thought of herself as kind of a nerd. She loved the Harry Potter book series and the Star Trek television show.

When she was a senior in high school, Alex competed in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), which attracts top high-school science students from around the world. She won second place in microbiology! To honor her work, the scientists at MITs Lincoln Laboratory named an asteroid after her: Asteroid 23238 Ocasio-Cortez.

CHAPTER 2

Boston

Alex graduated from Yorktown High School in 2007. She had been accepted at Boston University, where she planned to study medicine. But the excitement of going to college in the fall was overshadowed by sad news: Her father had been diagnosed with cancer. Before the beginning of her sophomore year, he was hospitalized. Alex went to visit him before she left for Boston. As they talked, she began to feel like this might be the last time she saw him. When it was time for her to go, he called out to her, Make me proud!