Claim: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is an actress playing a congresswoman to push the agenda of Justice Democrats. 
Verdict: REFUTES

Retrieved passages:
title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
text: her campaign for criminal justice reform in an article in "America", the magazine of the Jesuit order in the United States. At a 2018 Hanukkah party held by activist group Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, Ocasio-Cortez also announced that her family has Sephardic Jewish ancestry, but did not practice the faith. During the 2018 election campaign, Ocasio-Cortez resided in Parkchester, Bronx. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (born October 13, 1989), sometimes referred to by her initials AOC, is an American politician and educator. She is the U.S. Representative-elect for New York's 14th congressional district, elected on November 6, 2018. On

title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
text: among a slate of nationwide Justice Democrats/Brand New Congress candidacy announcements livestreamed on May 16, 2017. In August 2017, she attended the Netroots Nation Conference in Atlanta, appearing on a panel with fellow candidates on "how to run a grassroots campaign that puts people above party".<ref name="Netroots Nation Aug. 2017/C-SPAN"></ref> Ocasio-Cortez was the first person since 2004 to challenge the Democratic Caucus Chair, Joe Crowley, in the Democratic primary. She faced a significant financial disadvantage, but said, "You can't really beat big money with more money. You have to beat them with a totally different game." Nearly 75% of her

title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
text: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (born October 13, 1989), sometimes referred to by her initials AOC, is an American politician and educator. She is the U.S. Representative-elect for New York's 14th congressional district, elected on November 6, 2018. 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 was described as the biggest upset victory in the 2018 midterm election primaries. Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. When she takes

title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
text: 39 seats. After the election, Ocasio-Cortez chose Justice Democrats co-founder Saikat Chakrabarti as her chief of staff. On the first day of congressional orientation, Ocasio-Cortez participated in a climate change protest outside the office of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Ocasio-Cortez backs Pelosi for Speaker of the House once the Democratic Party reclaims the majority in 2019, under the condition that she "remains the most progressive candidate for speaker." Ocasio-Cortez enters Congress with no seniority but with a large social media presence that could increase her influence in the House. "Axios" has credited her with as much social media clout

title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
text: office on January 3, 2019, at the age of 29, Ocasio-Cortez will be the youngest woman to serve in Congress in the history of the United States, a distinction that was previously held by New York Republican Elise Stefanik, who was elected at age 30 in 2014. Ocasio-Cortez was born in The Bronx, New York City, on October 13, 1989, to Blanca Ocasio-Cortez () and Sergio Ocasio. Her father, an architect of Puerto Rican descent, was born in the Bronx, while her mother was born in Puerto Rico. Until age five, Ocasio-Cortez lived with her family in an apartment in

title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
text: August 8 in the Bronx and August 12 in Corona, Queens. Ocasio-Cortez has been the subject of negative press coverage from right-leaning media outlets since her Democratic primary win in June 2018. Some news outlets, such as Fox News and the Washington Examiner, were criticized for their coverage that mocked Ocasio-Cortez's outfit choices. In July 2018, conservative news outlet CRTV published a doctored video that featured footage of Ocasio-Cortez from a previous interview with PBS, spliced to appear as answers to questions read by CRTV commentator Allie Stuckey. CRTV later added a discaimer that labeled the video as satire as

title: Kyle Kulinski
text: written in the early 2000s which they argued were sexist against women. Kulinski stated that he disagreed with the staff's decision, but he still wanted to respect their wishes. However, he stated that he still intended to support Justice Democrats' candidates. As such, his was one of the only news outlets who reported on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's primary challenge against Joe Crowley before her victory was announced. Kyle Kulinski Kyle Kulinski (born January 31, 1988) is an American political activist, progressive talk radio host, social democratic political commentator and the co-founder of Justice Democrats. He is the host and producer of

title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
text: to people affected by the human rights violations related to the Flint water crisis and the Dakota Access Pipeline. In an interview she recalled her visit to Standing Rock as a tipping point, saying that before that, she had felt that the only way to effectively run for office was if you had access to wealth, social influence, and power. But her visit to North Dakota, where she saw others "putting their whole lives and everything that they had on the line for the protection of their community", inspired her to begin to work for her own community. Ocasio-Cortez was

title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
text: 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". After college, Ocasio-Cortez moved back to the Bronx, while she worked as a bartender in Manhattan and as a waitress in a taqueria. Her mother, meanwhile, cleaned houses and drove school buses. After her father's death, Ocasio-Cortez and her mother struggled to fight foreclosure of their home. With financial backing from Sunshine Bronx Business

title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
text: primary election, Ocasio-Cortez attended a protest at an ICE child-detention center in Tornillo, Texas. On June 28, 2018, Ocasio-Cortez told CNN she would support the impeachment of President Trump, citing Trump's alleged violations of the Emoluments Clause and stating that "we have to hold everyone accountable and that no person is above that law.” In May, 2018, Ocasio-Cortez criticized the Israel Defense Forces' use of deadly force after Palestinian protesters participating in the 2018 Gaza border protests were killed. In a July 2018 interview with the PBS series "Firing Line", Ocasio-Cortez clarified that she is "a proponent of a two-state

title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
text: a "media failure". Ocasio-Cortez was barely mentioned in print-media coverage until her primary election win. After her primary win, Ocasio-Cortez quickly garnered nationwide media attention, including numerous articles and TV talk-show appearances. She appeared on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" and "The View" in the first few days after the primary and later on "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah". Ocasio-Cortez also drew a great deal of media attention when she and Bernie Sanders campaigned for James Thompson in Kansas in July 2018. A rally in Wichita had to be moved from a theater with a capacity of 1,500

title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
text: Incubator, she established a publishing firm, Brook Avenue Press, which specializes in children's literature that portrays the Bronx in a positive light. She worked as lead educational strategist at GAGEis, Inc. Ocasio-Cortez was also an educator at the nonprofit National Hispanic Institute. She served as its Educational Director of the 2017 Northeast Collegiate World Series, where she participated in a panel on Latino leadership. In the 2016 primary, Ocasio-Cortez worked as an organizer for Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign. After the general election, she traveled across America by car, visiting places such as Flint, Michigan, and Standing Rock, and speaking

title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
text: prisons, and enacting gun-control policies. Ocasio-Cortez campaigned in favor of tuition-free universities and public schools. Ocasio-Cortez is a self-described hardliner on environmental issues, calling climate change the "single biggest national security threat" facing the United States. She advocates for the United States to transition by 2035 to an electrical grid running on 100% renewable-energy production and end the use of fossil fuels. She also calls for a Green New Deal in the United States, in which the federal government would invest in the construction of large-scale green-infrastructure projects. Ocasio-Cortez has proposed "a select committee in the House to draft a

title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
text: Reform Party primary as a write-in candidate in a neighboring congressional district, New York's 15th, with a total vote count of nine, highest among all 22 write-in candidates. She said she appreciated the show of support, but would decline the nomination. Prior to defeating incumbent Joe Crowley in the 2018 Democratic primary, Ocasio-Cortez was given little airtime by most traditional news media outlets. Brian Stelter wrote that progressive media outlets such as "The Young Turks" and "The Intercept" "saw the Ocasio-Cortez upset coming". Margaret Sullivan said that traditional metrics of measuring a campaign's viability, like total fundraising, were contributing to

title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
text: sent former New York City Council member Annabel Palma in his place. Ocasio-Cortez was endorsed by progressive and civil rights organizations such as MoveOn, Justice Democrats, Brand New Congress, Black Lives Matter, and Democracy for America, and by gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, who, like Ocasio-Cortez, also challenged a longtime incumbent, Andrew Cuomo, in the 2018 New York gubernatorial election. Governor Cuomo endorsed Crowley, as did both of New York's U.S. Senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, 11 U.S. Representatives, 31 local elected officials, 31 trade unions, and progressive groups such

title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
text: as the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, the Working Families Party, NARAL Pro-Choice America and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, among others. California representative Ro Khanna, like Ocasio-Cortez a Justice Democrat, initially endorsed Crowley, later also endorsing Ocasio-Cortez in an unusual dual endorsement. Following her win, Ocasio-Cortez explained her campaign strategy: On June 26, 2018, Ocasio-Cortez received 57.13% of the vote (15,897) to Joe Crowley's 42.5% (11,761), defeating the 10-term incumbent by almost 15 percentage points. "Time" called her victory "the biggest upset of the 2018 elections so far"; CNN made a similar statement. "The New York Times"

title: Puerto Ricans in the United States
text: in November 2013, assuming the unexpired term of Cory Booker, who vacated the position to become a U.S. Senator from New Jersey. On June 26, 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a millennial, 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, Democratic Caucus Chair Joe Crowley, in what has been described as the biggest upset victory in the 2018 midterm-election season. Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and has been endorsed by various politically progressive organizations and individuals. If she is elected, as

title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
text: the neighborhood of Parkchester. The family then moved to a house in Yorktown Heights, a suburb in Westchester County. Growing up, Ocasio-Cortez regularly visited her extended family in the Bronx. Ocasio-Cortez attended Yorktown High School, graduating in 2007, where she won second prize in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair with a microbiology research project on the effect of antioxidants on "C. elegans"' lifespan. As a result, the International Astronomical Union named a small asteroid after her: 23238 Ocasio-Cortez. In high school, she took part in the National Hispanic Institute's Lorenzo de Zavala (LDZ) Youth Legislative Session. She later

title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
text: as her fellow freshman Democrats combined. she has 1.38 million Twitter followers and just under a million Instagram followers. During the orientation for new members hosted by the John F. Kennedy School of Government, a tradition since 1972, Ocasio-Cortez used her Twitter account to report about the influence of corporate interests by sponsors the American Enterprise Institute and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Ocasio-Cortez is a self-described democratic socialist. She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. She supports progressive policies such as Medicare for All, a job guarantee, tuition-free public college, ending the privatization of

title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
text: well as providing a link to the original PBS interview. In December 2018 Ocasio-Cortez said the media's treatment of her reveals a sexist double standard. She cited the example of Paul Ryan, who was also elected to Congress at age 28 but who was treated as a genius despite his "ill-considered policies" while she has been treated with suspicion and derision. Ocasio-Cortez faced Republican nominee Anthony Pappas in the November 6 general election. Pappas, who lives in Astoria, is an economics professor at St. John's University. According to the "New York Post", Pappas did not actively campaign. The "Post" wrote