About Our Campaign

Meet Alexandria

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is fighting for a U.S. that works for all of us, not just a wealthy few.

Early Life

Alexandria was born in the Bronx to working-class parents. Her father was a small business owner from the South Bronx. Her mother was born in Puerto Rico—growing up around a large family near Arecibo. Her mother cleaned homes, and everyone pitched in on the family business.

From an early age, Alexandria grew up with a deep understanding of income inequality. The state of Bronx public schools in the late 80s and early 90s sent her parents on a search for a solution. She ended up attending public school in Yorktown—40 minutes north of her birthplace. As a result, much of her early life was spent in transit between her tight-knit extended family in the Bronx and her daily student life. It was clear to her, even then, that the zip code a child was born in determined much of their destiny.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a baby with her father

Photo of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez looking to the right

“My aunt and my uncle were just talking last Christmas about how they literally heard Malcolm X evangelizing on street corners. That is the institutional memory of my family and multigenerational New York families. It’s actually kind of a rarity, and the reason it’s a rarity is because of the changes that the city has gone through. This city is becoming too inaccessible and too unaffordable for normal people to live in anymore. My family is three generations deep in The Bronx, and my own mother can’t afford to live in the same city, in the same state as me anymore, because it’s gotten too expensive.”

What We’ve Achieved

In my first term serving as your representative in Congress, we have:

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Won Billions of Dollars for NY-14 Families

Alexandria brought home $4.3 billion in federal funding to the district for important priorities, like education, small business support, healthcare, affordable housing, transportation, retirement security, and fighting opioid addiction.

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Lowered Prescription Drug Costs

Congresswoman Ocasio Cortez, along with activists and organizers, pressured a pharmaceutical CEO into making life-saving therapy more affordable and accessible.

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Fought for Immigrant Families

Alexandria has repeatedly used her platform to call for an end to the “Muslim Ban”, family separation, and other cruel policies - traveling to the border in order to expose the devastating conditions inside detention facilities.

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Introduced the Green New Deal Resolution

Alexandria introduced this plan to fight climate change and create jobs by dramatically investing in public infrastructure.

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Supported Puerto Rico

The Congresswoman secured funding for environmental clean up in Puerto Rico, and traveled to the Island to oversee the recovery efforts and lobby for more federal funding.

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Launched COVID-19 relief effort

With the help of grassroots supporters, Alexandria raised $1.1M for COVID relief efforts in NY-14, and distributed 100,000 masks and 80,000 meals to the community.

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Served our constituents

Alexandria’s office opened over 1000 cases for NY-14 constituents, and the congresswoman personally attended over 200 events and held more than 20 town halls

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Organized Census outreach effort

The Congresswoman’s campaign organized an outreach effort that encouraged 3900 people to fill out the Census and brought back up to $59.6M to our community

The Fight is Not Over

COVID-19 is not creating new problems. It's pouring gasoline on our existing ones. We deserve more than a return to the system that allowed this pandemic that devastated our lives and livelihood.

That's why Alexandria is fighting for recurring monthly payments, a rent moratorium, and also for long-term solutions like Medicare for All and a Green New Deal. We can’t repeat the mistakes of the 2008 financial crisis. We have to rebuild our economy and our society in order to eliminate the wealth gap and give working people a real seat at the table.

FAQ

How does your Congresswoman serve you?

When you elect a Congressperson, you are choosing someone to represent you in the federal government. This means that your Congressperson can help you when you need assistance with a federal matter, such as: Social Security; Immigration; the U.S. Postal Service; Veterans Affairs; the Bureau of Federal Prison; and Public Housing. Your Congressperson can also be so much more. From internship and grant opportunities to art and app competitions, your Congressperson can connect you and the community to resources that only our federal government can provide.

What is Democratic Socialism?

In a moral and wealthy America, no person should ever be too poor to live. Democratic Socialism is not about government takeover; it’s about workers having a decent amount of the wealth they are creating. It’s about how much of a say workers have in the operations of the businesses they sustain. It’s about dignity. Democratic Socialism means being willing to compromise only in order to live in a society that does not fail people’s most basic needs to live.