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I see people like me, who thought someone like me couldn’t be in politics, now are saying, ‘Oh, wait, I don’t need to take money from corporations to run. Maybe I’ll run, too.’

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The way the Queens Democratic party machine has worked, they operate on a politics of exclusion.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

Democracy Politics Queen Way
I don’t think any person in America should die because they are too poor to live.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

Death Myself Person Thinking
I was born to a dad who was born in the South Bronx while the Bronx was burning, while landlords were committing arson to their own buildings.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

Born Build Burn Father Myself
For me, democratic socialism is about – really, the value for me is that I believe that in a modern, moral, and wealthy society, no person in America should be too poor to live.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

Democracy Live Myself Poor Rich Social Value
My mother cleaned homes and drove school buses, and when my family was on the brink of foreclosure… I started bartending and waitressing.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

Family Home Job Myself Profession Start
I don’t think most of Congress understands how economics works.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

Congress Economics Myself Politics Thinking
I’m an educator. I’m an organizer.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

Education Myself Organization
Public schools in the late ’80s and early ’90s were a total mess… we felt that if I was going to have a good educational option in my life, I would have to go to a public school district that actually served its children.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

Children Education Feeling Goodness Life Myself Public Service
I don’t like having people do little things for me.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

Myself People Small
It’s not just that I’m a woman of color running for office. It’s the way that I ran. It’s the way that my identity formed my methods.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

Color Identity Myself Office Run Woman
I believe that every American should have stable, dignified housing; health care; education – that the most very basic needs to sustain modern life should be guaranteed in a moral society.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

Believe Dignity Education Life Modern Myself Society Stability
I felt like the only way to effectively run for office is if you had access to a lot of wealth, high social influence, a lot of dynastic power, and I knew that I didn’t have any of those things.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

Feeling Influence Myself Office Social
Democrats are a big-tent party. You know, I’m not trying to impose an ideology on all, you know, several hundred members of Congress.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

Democracy Government Ideas Politics Yourself
Democrats should be getting high-fives from sanitation truck drivers – that is what should be happening in America.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

Country Democracy Driver Sanitation
We have to stick to the message: What are we proposing to the American people? Not, ‘What are we fighting against?’
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

Fight Message People Propose Rival
When people feel like they are being spoken directly to, I do feel like… they’ll do things like turn out in an off-year, mid-year primary.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

Direct Feeling Myself People Time