“Women like me aren’t supposed to run for office,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says during her campaign video.
On Tuesday, June 26, she unexpectedly ousted 10-term Congressman, Democrat Joe Crowley. She could also potentially become the youngest woman elected to congress.
A New York Native, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx. Her father was a small business owner and her mother did odd jobs, including housekeeping and driving buses, to support their family. Ambitious and driven, Ocasio-Cortez graduated from Boston University in 2011 with a dual degree in Economics and International Relations. But after she lost her father in 2008, she began waiting tables and tending bar, often working 18 hour days to help keep her family afloat.
Ocasio-Cortez calls herself an educator, organizer and working class New Yorker. Ocasio-Cortez has never held office and is still paying off her student loans. Less than a year after she was seen working at a bar, she is leaving her mark in history.
Ocasio-Cortez credits a clear vision with a concrete plan for her historic win. She knows the importance of communicating her message effectively to her constituents and Tuesday’s primary results prove her methods worked.
Emily Cassidy