Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (born October 13, 1989), widely known as AOC, is an American politician and activist who has represented New York's 14th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2019. She is a member of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America and has been described as progressive and left-wing.

She was born in the Bronx, New York City; her father was born in the Bronx to a Puerto Rican family and her mother was born in Puerto Rico. She is a Catholic. She graduated cum laude from Boston University in 2011 with a double major in international relations and economics, then returned to the Bronx and worked as a bartender and waitress to help her mother keep the family home. In 2016 she worked as an organizer for Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign.

In June 2018, in her first run for office, she won the Democratic primary with 56.7% of the vote against Joe Crowley, the ten-term incumbent and chair of the House Democratic Caucus, in what was widely seen as the biggest primary upset of the year. Taking office at 29, she became the youngest woman ever to serve in Congress, and she and Rashida Tlaib were the first two female members of the Democratic Socialists of America elected to Congress. She was reelected in 2020, 2022, 2024 and 2026.

Her progressive platform includes support for worker cooperatives, Medicare for All, tuition-free public colleges, a jobs guarantee and a Green New Deal, as well as abolishing ICE.