I was born in a place where your ZIP code determines your destiny.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZI was born in a place where your ZIP code determines your destiny.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZWomen like me aren’t supposed to run for office.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZCampaigns are so much more expensive than people think they are. Just to keep the lights on is several thousand dollars a month.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZDemocrats should be getting high-fives from sanitation truck drivers – that is what should be happening in America.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZI don’t think any person in America should die because they are too poor to live.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZI 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-CORTEZI’m an educator. I’m an organizer.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZMy mother cleaned homes and drove school buses, and when my family was on the brink of foreclosure… I started bartending and waitressing.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZI’m not running from the left; I’m running from the bottom. I’m running in fierce advocacy for working-class New Yorkers.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZI want to speak to people directly as much as possible.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZFor 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-CORTEZI 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-CORTEZI 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-CORTEZI don’t like having people do little things for me.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZWhen 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-CORTEZMentors of mine were under a big pressure to minimize their femininity to make it. I’m not going to do that. That takes away my power. I’m not going to compromise who I am.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ