COUNTRY OF BIRTH

United States

INDUSTRY

Politics

TOP ACHIEVEMENTS

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) was elected to the U.S. Congress at age 29, making her the youngest woman to serve.

EARLY CAREER

After college, AOC worked as a bartender and waitress to help support her mother after her father’s untimely death. She volunteered with the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign and then launched her own grassroots campaign to be elected to represent New York’s 14th Congressional District. She gained the support of prominent figures like Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders, and was sworn in in January 2019. She is an advocate for working-class people and for justice across racial, social, and economic divides.

Achievements

In the 2018 midterm election primaries, AOC defeated 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley by nearly 15 percentage points. She then defeated Anthony Pappas in the November 2018 general election. AOC was named the National Hispanic Institute Person of the Year in 2017.

ADDITIONAL FACTS

AOC is the Educational Director of the National Hispanic Institute She is a member of Democratic Socialists of America Elizabeth Warren wrote the entry for AOC when she was named one of Time’s 100 in 2019 When she was elected to Congress, her colleagues asked her to give them social media lessons AOC had an asteroid named after her in recognition of her second-finish place in the 2007 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair