Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (born October 13, 1989) is an American politician, educator, and political activist.^[1] On June 26, 2018, Ocasio-Cortez won the Democratic primary in New York’s 14th congressional district covering parts of the Bronx and Queens in New York City, defeating the incumbent Congressman, Democratic Caucus Chair Joe Crowley, in what has been described as the biggest upset victory in the 2018 midterm-election season.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and has been endorsed by various politically progressive organizations and people.^[7]

Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx, New York City,^[8] on October 13, 1989, to Blanca Ocasio-Cortez (née Cortez) and Sergio Ocasio. Her father, an architect, was also born in the Bronx, while her mother was born in Puerto Rico.^[9]^[10] Until age five, Ocasio-Cortez lived with her family in an apartment in the neighborhood of Parkchester.^[10] The family then moved to a house in Yorktown Heights, a suburb in Westchester County.^[10] Growing up, Ocasio-Cortez regularly visited her extended family in the Bronx.^[11]

From 2003 to 2007, Ocasio-Cortez attended Yorktown High School,^[12] where she won second prize in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair with a research project on microbiology. As a result, the International Astronomical Union named a small asteroid after her: 23238 Ocasio-Cortez.^[13]^[14] In high school, she took part in the National Hispanic Institute‘s Lorenzo de Zalvala (LDZ) Youth Legislative Session. She later became the LDZ Secretary of State while she attended Boston University. Ocasio-Cortez had a John F. Lopez Fellowship.^[15] In 2008, while Ocasio-Cortez was a sophomore at Boston University, her father died of lung cancer.^[16]^[17]^[18] During college, she was an intern in the immigration office of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy.^[19] She graduated cum laude from Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in economicsand international relations.^[15]^[20]^[21]

Ocasio-Cortez has described her background as working-class, and relates many of her political positions to it. When her father died intestate of lung cancer in 2008,^[22] she became involved in a long probate battle to settle his estate. She has said that the experience helped her learn “firsthand how attorneys appointed by the court to administer an estate can enrich themselves at the expense of the families struggling to make sense of the bureaucracy.”^[23] She credits seeing the treatment of her cousin by law enforcement, as well as her Catholic faith, for her desire to overhaul mass incarceration in the criminal-justice system.^[24]

Source: Wikipedia

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Democrat)

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Democrat)

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