Alexandria was born in The Bronx to working class parents: her father was a small business owner and architect from the South Bronx, and her mother cleaned homes after moving to New York from Arecibo, Puerto Rico. As school violence and dropout rates in The Bronx rose in the early 90’s, her parents put their savings together and purchased a modest home 30 miles north of the city in search of better schools for the family. As a result, much of Alexandria’s adolescence was spent in transit between her tight-knit extended family in The Bronx and school in Yorktown Heights. It struck Alexandria as unfair, even then, how the opportunities available to children and their families were often based on their ZIP code.
Alexandria went on to study Economics and International Relations at Boston University. At the start of her sophomore year, Alexandria's father passed away suddenly from cancer at just 48 years old. Facing huge medical bills, the family risked foreclosure and her mother took another job driving a school bus. The unjust medical debt left a lasting impression on Alexandria, and she sought out an internship in the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s office. Upon graduating college, Alexandria came back to The Bronx and pursued work in education and community organizing: as an Educational Director for the National Hispanic Institute, she worked with promising high school youth to expand their skill-sets in community leadership and social enterprise; she also piloted projects to help improve literacy skills in young children and middle-schoolers. But as the economy floundered, Alexandria found herself working two jobs and 18-hour shifts in restaurants to help keep her family afloat, while balancing student loan and insurance payments.
This investment will create nearly 9 million new jobs in clean energy, reduce dangerous emissions by 40% by 2030, and lower annual energy bills by $1,000 per household. Working with other House Members, Alexandria also launched the first Green New Deal projects and secured 100 million dollars for more than sixty projects, stretching from Hawai’i to Vermont.
Alexandria expanded Green New Deal support in Congress with 17 new co-sponsors. She also developed a Green New Deal implementation guide to help local governments and nonprofits apply for federal grants that meet Green New Deal goals, and successfully pushed the White House to create the American Climate Corps—a pilot program providing thousands of new jobs to fight climate change.
We helped pass into law The Inflation Reduction Act - which will provide funding for the IRS to go after wealthy tax evaders, establish a 15% minimum tax rate on the wealthiest corporations, and set a 1% tax on stock buybacks used to benefit wealthy shareholders.
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act expands background check requirements for the sale of firearms to individuals under 21 years of age, prohibits gun ownership to those convicted of abusing a dating partner (closing the ‘boyfriend loophole’), and increases funding for mental health programs and school security updates.
Medicare will soon have the ability to negotiate some drug prices for the first time. Alexandria also helped to cap insulin prices at $35 per month, and out-of-pocket costs at $2000 per year, for those covered by Medicare.
Including a new labor unit and delivery unit at Elmhurst Hospital to improve care for mothers and babies at our Queens public hospital, and a workforce training program for 300 students at SUNY Maritime to prepare for good, union jobs in green energy.
Homework Helpers, our volunteer tutoring program, established a chapter at the University at Buffalo, and provided over 4000 sessions of free homework help to students all throughout NY-14. Become a Homework Helpers Volunteer Tutor here, or sign up for free online homework help here!
In the House, alongside Rep. Velazquez and others, Alexandria helped lead negotiations and passage of the Puerto Rico Status Act, which acknowledges the U.S. as a colonizing force for the first time in history and outlines a process for Boricuas to determine their own future. Alexandria also successfully passed an amendment that required the U.S. military to provide an update on their efforts to clean up hazardous waste in Vieques, Puerto Rico.
Alexandria raised $100k for fellow progressive Members and candidates who are facing unprecedented efforts from AIPAC and special interest groups seeking to unseat pro-ceasefire Members of Congress.
Alexandria and her congressional team helped NY-14 residents get back over $1.9 million that they were owed from federal agencies. In total, they opened over 1,800 cases, responded to thousands of calls and met with over 800 walk-ins.
When you elect a Congressperson, you are choosing someone to represent you in the federal government. Your Representative can help when you need assistance with a federal agency, 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 your community to resources that only our federal government can provide.
In a moral and wealthy America, no person should ever be too poor to live. Democratic Socialism is about workers having a decent amount of the wealth they are creating. It’s not about government takeover – it’s about how much say workers have in the operations of the businesses they sustain. It’s about dignity.
It fluctuates from time to time, but the average contribution is roughly $16.81.