Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (/oʊˌkɑːsioʊ kɔːrˈtɛz/ oh-KAH-see-oh kor-TEZ, Spanish: [aleɣˈsandɾja oˈkasjo koɾˈtes]; born October 13, 1989), also known as AOC, is an American politician and activist serving since 2019 as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
Ocasio-Cortez was born in the New York City borough of the Bronx. Her family later moved to Yorktown Heights for school. She attended Boston University, where she double-majored in international relations and economics, graduating with honors. She moved back to the Bronx, becoming an activist and working as a waitress and bartender.
On June 26, 2018, Ocasio-Cortez drew national recognition when she won the Democratic Party's primary election for New York's 14th congressional district. She defeated Democratic Caucus chair Joe Crowley, a 10-term incumbent, in what was widely seen as the biggest upset victory in the 2018 midterm election primaries. She easily won the November general election, defeating Republican Anthony Pappas. She was reelected in 2020, 2022, and 2024.
Taking office at age 29, Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. She was also, alongside Rashida Tlaib, one of the first two female members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) elected to Congress. She advocates a progressive platform that includes support for worker cooperatives, Medicare for All, tuition-free public colleges, a jobs guarantee, a Green New Deal, and abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). She is a prominent leader of the left-wing faction of the Democratic Party, and a member of "the Squad", a progressive congressional bloc.
Ocasio-Cortez was born in the New York City borough of the Bronx on October 13, 1989, the daughter of Sergio Ocasio-Roman and Blanca Ocasio-Cortez (née Cortez). She has a younger brother named Gabriel. Her father was born in the Bronx to a Puerto Rican family and became an architect; her mother was born in Puerto Rico. The family lived in an apartment in the Bronx neighborhood of Parkchester until Ocasio-Cortez was five, when they moved to a house in suburban Yorktown Heights. She said her family raised enough money to buy a small home there so she could go to school, and that her mother worked as a house cleaner in the town.
Ocasio-Cortez attended Yorktown High School, graduating in 2007. In high school and college, Ocasio-Cortez went by the name of "Sandy Ocasio". She came in second in the microbiology category of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in 2007 with a research project on the effect of antioxidants on the lifespan of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. In a show of appreciation for her efforts, the MIT Lincoln Laboratory 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. After graduating, she became the LDZ Secretary of State while attending Boston University. Ocasio-Cortez had a John F. Lopez Fellowship.
Her father died of lung cancer in 2008 during her second year of college, and Ocasio-Cortez became involved in a lengthy probate dispute to settle his estate. She has said that the experience helped her learn "first-hand 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". During college, Ocasio-Cortez was an intern for U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy in his section on foreign affairs and immigration issues. In interviews, she said she was the only Spanish speaker in the office and the sole person responsible for assisting Spanish-speaking constituents. Ocasio-Cortez graduated cum laude from Boston University in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in international relations and economics.
After college, Ocasio-Cortez moved back to the Bronx and took a job as a bartender and waitress to help her mother—a house cleaner and school bus driver—fight foreclosure of their home. She later launched Brook Avenue Press, a now-defunct publishing firm for books that portrayed the Bronx in a positive light. Ocasio-Cortez also worked for the nonprofit National Hispanic Institute.
During the 2016 primary, Ocasio-Cortez worked as an organizer for Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign. After the general election, she traveled across America by car, visiting places such as Flint, Michigan and the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota, and speaking to people affected by the Flint water crisis and the Dakota Access Pipeline. In an interview she recalled her December 2016 visit to Standing Rock as a tipping point, saying that before that, she had believed that the only way to run for office effectively was to have 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. One day after she visited North Dakota, she got a phone call from Brand New Congress, which was recruiting progressive candidates (her brother had nominated her soon after Election Day 2016). Ocasio-Cortez said she was first exposed to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) when a friend brought her to a local meeting in Upper Manhattan. She has credited Jabari Brisport's unsuccessful City Council campaign with restoring her belief in electoral politics, in running as a socialist candidate, and in the DSA as an organization.
Ocasio-Cortez began her campaign in April 2017 while waiting tables and tending bar at Flats Fix, a taqueria in New York City's Union Square. "For 80 percent of this campaign, I operated out of a paper grocery bag hidden behind that bar," she told Bon Appétit. She was the first person since 2004 to challenge Joe Crowley, the Democratic Caucus Chair, in the primary. She faced a financial disadvantage, saying, "You can't really beat big money with more money. You have to beat them with a totally different game." Ocasio-Cortez's campaign undertook grassroots mobilization and did not take donations from corporations. Her campaign posters' designs were said to have taken inspiration from "revolutionary posters and visuals from the past".
The candidates' only face-to-face encounter during the campaign occurred on a local political talk show, Inside City Hall, on June 15. The format was a joint interview conducted by Errol Louis, which NY1 characterized as a debate. A debate in the Bronx was scheduled for June 18, but Crowley did not participate. He 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 and Democracy for America. Then-Governor Andrew Cuomo endorsed Crowley, as did both of New York's U.S. senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, multiple U.S. representatives, various local elected officials and trade unions, and groups such 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, a Justice Democrat like Ocasio-Cortez, initially endorsed Crowley but later endorsed Ocasio-Cortez in an unusual dual endorsement.
Ocasio-Cortez received 57.13% of the vote (15,897) to Crowley's 42.5% (11,761), defeating the 10-term incumbent by almost 15 percentage points on June 26, 2018. The result shocked many political commentators and analysts and immediately garnered nationwide attention. Many news sources, including Time, CNN, The New York Times, and The Guardian mentioned how the win completely defied their predictions and expectations. She was outspent by a margin of 18 to 1 ($1.5 million to $83,000) but won the endorsement of some influential groups on the party's left. Crowley conceded defeat on election night, but did not telephone Ocasio-Cortez that night to congratulate her, fueling short-lived speculation that he intended to run against her in the general election.
Bernie Sanders and Noam Chomsky congratulated her. Several commentators noted the similarities between Ocasio-Cortez's victory over Crowley and Dave Brat's Tea Party movement-supported 2014 victory over House majority leader Eric Cantor in the Republican primary for Virginia's 7th congressional district. Like Crowley, Cantor was a high-ranking member in his party's caucus. After her primary win, Ocasio-Cortez endorsed several progressive primary challengers to Democratic incumbents nationwide, capitalizing on her fame and spending her political capital in a manner unusual even for unexpected primary winners.
Without campaigning for it, Ocasio-Cortez won the 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 declined the nomination.
Ocasio-Cortez faced Republican nominee Anthony Pappas in the November 6 general election. Pappas, an economics professor, did not actively campaign. The 14th district has a Cook Partisan Voting Index of D+29, making it New York City's sixth-most Democratic district, with registered Democrats outnumbering Republicans almost six to one.
Ocasio-Cortez was endorsed by various politically progressive organizations and figures, including former president Barack Obama and U.S. senator Bernie Sanders. She spoke at the Netroots Nation conference in August 2018, and was called "the undisputed star of the convention".
Crowley remained on the ballot as the nominee of the Working Families Party (WFP) and the Women's Equality Party (WEP). Neither he nor the WFP party actively campaigned, both having endorsed Ocasio-Cortez after the Democratic primary. Ocasio-Cortez called the WEP, which Governor Cuomo created ahead of the 2014 New York gubernatorial election, a cynical, centrist group that endorsed male incumbents over female challengers like her and Cynthia Nixon. Former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman, who won reelection in 2006 on a third-party line after losing the Democratic primary in 2006, penned a July 17 column in the Wall Street Journal expressing hope that Crowley would actively campaign on the WFP ballot line. WFP Executive Director Dan Cantor wrote an endorsement of, and apology to, Ocasio-Cortez for the New York Daily News; he asked voters not to vote for Crowley if his name remained on the general election ballot.
Ocasio-Cortez won the election with 78% of the vote (110,318) to Pappas's 14% (17,762). Crowley, on the WFP and WEP lines, received 9,348 votes (6.6%). Her election was part of a broader Democratic victory in the 2018 midterm elections, as the party gained control of the House by picking up 41 seats. Saikat Chakrabarti, who had been her campaign co-chair, became chief of staff for her congressional office. His departure in 2019 drew considerable speculation as to whether Ocasio-Cortez was trying to implement a more moderate strategy.
The first media network to give Ocasio-Cortez a platform and extensively cover her campaign and policies was The Young Turks, a left-wing online news program. After her primary win, she quickly garnered nationwide media attention, including numerous articles and TV talk-show appearances. She also drew a great amount of media attention when she and 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 when far more people said they would attend. The event drew 4,000 people, with some seated on the floor. In The New Yorker, Benjamin Wallace-Wells wrote that while Sanders remained "the de-facto leader of an increasingly popular left, [he is unable to] do things that do not come naturally to him, like supply hope." Wallace-Wells suggested that Ocasio-Cortez had made Sanders's task easier, as he could point to her success to show that ideas "once considered to be radical are now part of the mainstream".
Until she defeated incumbent Joe Crowley in the 2018 Democratic primary, Ocasio-Cortez received little coverage on most traditional news media outlets. Jimmy Dore interviewed her when she first announced her candidacy in June 2017. After her primary win, Brian Stelter wrote that progressive-media outlets, such as The Young Turks and The Intercept, "saw the Ocasio-Cortez upset coming" in advance. Margaret Sullivan wrote in The Washington Post that traditional metrics of measuring a campaign's viability, like total fundraising, were contributing to a "media failure" and that "they need to get closer to what voters are thinking and feeling: their anger and resentment, their disenfranchisement from the centers of power, their pocketbook concerns."
Ocasio-Cortez's campaign was featured on the cover of the June 2018 edition of The Indypendent, a free New York City-based monthly newspaper. In a tweet she hailed the cover appearance on "NYC's classic monthly" as an important breakthrough for her campaign. Otherwise Ocasio-Cortez was barely mentioned in print until her primary win.
Ocasio-Cortez was one of the subjects of the 2018 Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 11/9; it chronicled her primary campaign.
In an attempt to embarrass Ocasio-Cortez just before she took office, Twitter user "AnonymousQ" shared a video dating to Ocasio-Cortez's college years: a Boston University student-produced dance video in which she briefly appeared. Many social media users came to her defense, inspiring memes and a Twitter account syncing the footage to songs like "Mambo No. 5" and "Gangnam Style". Ocasio-Cortez responded by posting a video of herself dancing to Edwin Starr's "War" outside her congressional office.
Elizabeth Warren wrote the entry on Ocasio-Cortez for 2019's Time 100. The documentary Knock Down the House, directed by Rachel Lears, which focuses on four female Democrats in the 2018 United States elections who were not career politicians—Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Cori Bush and Paula Jean Swearengin—premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Ocasio-Cortez was the only one of the women featured in the film to win. It was released by Netflix on May 1, 2019. Ocasio-Cortez also appeared in Lears's 2022 film To the End, which focuses on the effects of climate change. The film debuted at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and was presented at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2022.
Michelle Caruso-Cabrera challenged Ocasio-Cortez in the 2020 Democratic primary. After Ocasio-Cortez won the nomination, Caruso-Cabrera reorganized and ran in the general election as the Serve America Movement nominee. Ocasio-Cortez's Republican challengers in the general election included nominee John Cummings, a former police officer, and Antoine Tucker, a write-in candidate.
The American Prospect wrote in October 2020 that Ocasio-Cortez was "spending the 2020 campaign running workshops" for constituents on workplace organizing, fighting eviction, and organizing childcare. They noted that Ocasio-Cortez was often not featured in the streamed workshops, saying the "strategy decentralizes the candidate from her own campaign".
On October 20, 2020, Ocasio-Cortez hosted a Twitch stream of the social deduction game Among Us, with fellow congresswoman Ilhan Omar, and many established streamers such as Pokimane, Hasan Piker, DrLupo, and mxmtoon. The stream peaked with over 400,000 viewers and, according to The Guardian's Joshua Rivera, succeeded in humanizing her. Ocasio-Cortez again streamed Among Us on Twitch on November 27, 2020, with Hasan Piker, xQc, ContraPoints and Canadian MP Jagmeet Singh to raise money for food pantries, eviction defense legal aid, and community support organizations to assist those suffering economic hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic. The stream raised $200,000 and Ocasio-Cortez wrote, "This is going to make such a difference for those who need it most right now."
Ocasio-Cortez ran unopposed in the Democratic primary. She defeated Republican Tina Forte and Conservative Party nominee Desi Cuellar in the general election.
In May, the DSA debated whether to endorse Ocasio-Cortez. Some members argued that she was more committed to the Democratic Party and that her positions on Palestine had become weaker. On June 23, the DSA National Political Committee (NPC) voted to endorse her so long as she fulfilled its list of demands, most concerning Palestine. The New York City chapter, which endorsed her, rejected the deal. On July 10, the NPC withdrew its endorsement of Ocasio-Cortez. It mainly cited a panel she held with Jewish leaders that supposedly conflated antisemitism with anti-Zionism. Other concerns included her support for a resolution that characterized denial of Israel's right to exist as antisemitism and her support of the Iron Dome defense system.
Investment banker Marty Dolan, a moderate Democrat, ran against Ocasio-Cortez in the primary. Ocasio-Cortez won overwhelmingly.
Ocasio-Cortez again easily won the general election against Forte. Notably, some voters in her district split their tickets, voting for Ocasio-Cortez and for Trump in the presidential election. Harris won 65% of the district's vote and Trump 33%, an increase from 2020. A political analyst said this was because both Trump and Ocasio-Cortez "were leading with the message of working-class pocketbook issues". Ocasio-Cortez asked those who split their tickets why they did so; some said that they both cared about the working class and were "less establishment", while others cited the Gaza war and the economy.
Taking office at age 29, Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest woman ever to serve in the United States Congress, and also the youngest member of the 116th Congress.
When the 116th Congress convened on January 3, 2019, Ocasio-Cortez entered with no seniority but with a large social media presence. Axios credited her with "as much social media clout as her fellow freshman Democrats combined". Since June 2024, she has 13.1 million X (formerly Twitter) followers, up from 1.4 million in November 2018. As of January 2025, she has 8.4 million followers on Instagram and 1.8 million on Facebook. Ocasio-Cortez is also the most followed user on Bluesky, with 2 million followers as of March 2025. Her colleagues appointed her to teach them social media lessons upon her arrival in Congress. In July 2019, two lawsuits were filed against her for blocking Joey Salads and Dov Hikind on Twitter in light of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that it was a violation of the First Amendment for President Trump to block people on Twitter. On November 4, 2019, it was announced that the lawsuit had been settled; Ocasio-Cortez issued an apology.
In a 2019 interview, Ocasio-Cortez said she had stopped using her private Facebook account and was minimizing her usage of all social media accounts and platforms, calling them a "public health risk".
In November 2018, on the first day of congressional orientation, Ocasio-Cortez participated in a climate change protest outside the office of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Also that month, she backed Pelosi's bid to be Speaker of the House on the condition that Pelosi "remains the most progressive candidate for speaker".
When Ocasio-Cortez made her first speech on the floor of Congress in January 2019, C-SPAN tweeted the video. Within 12 hours, the video of her speech set the record as C-SPAN's most-watched Twitter video of a member of the House of Representatives.
In February 2019, speaking at a Congressional hearing with a panel of representatives from campaign finance watchdog groups, Ocasio-Cortez questioned the panel about ethics regulations as they apply to both the president and members of Congress. She asserted that no regulations prevent lawmakers "from being bought off by wealthy corporations". With more than 37.5 million views, the clip became the most-watched political video posted on Twitter.
When President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen appeared before the Oversight Committee in February 2019, Ocasio-Cortez asked him whether Trump had inflated property values for bank or insurance purposes. Cohen's reply implied that Trump may have committed tax and bank fraud. The president of the American Constitution Society named Ocasio-Cortez as the committee member best at obtaining specific information from Cohen about Trump's "shady practices, along with a road map for how to find out more". New York Times columnist David Brooks praised her skill in questioning Cohen. The exchange between Ocasio-Cortez and Cohen prompted an investigation by New York attorney general Letitia James, who referred to it in August 2020 when filing legal action to compel Trump's companies to comply with subpoenas about financial information, and to compel his son Eric Trump to testify. Further developments as a result of the exchange saw James form a civil investigation and lawsuit against the Trump Organization regarding potential financial fraud, which resulted in a fine of $354 million and a ban on Trump doing business in New York for two to three years.
According to reports in March 2019, Ocasio-Cortez continued to receive media coverage early in her congressional tenure on par with that of 2020 presidential candidates and was considered "one of the faces of the Democratic party" and one of the most talked-about politicians in the United States. Between July 8 and 14, 2019, she drew more social media attention than the Democratic presidential candidates. Tracking company NewsWhip found that interactions with news articles on Ocasio-Cortez numbered 4.8 million, while no Democratic presidential candidate got more than 1.2 million. David Bauder of the Associated Press wrote that Trump's supporters were thus having "some success" in having "Ocasio-Cortez be top of mind when people think of" the Democratic Party.
According to a Media Matters for America study, Ocasio-Cortez was intensely discussed on sister television channels Fox News and Fox Business, being mentioned every day from February 25 to April 7, 2019, for a total of 3,181 mentions in 42 days. The Guardian's David Smith wrote that this is evidence that Fox is "obsessed by Ocasio-Cortez, portraying her as a radical socialist who threatens the American way of life". Brian Stelter of CNN Business found that between January and July 2019, she had nearly three times as many mentions on Fox News as on CNN and MSNBC. Stelter wrote that the attention Ocasio-Cortez is receiving has caused "the perception, particularly on the right, that her positions and policies are representative of the Democratic Party as a whole". In March 2019, Time Magazine said Ocasio-Cortez was the "second-most talked about politician" in the United States, after Trump, and called her "the Wonder Woman of the left".
In March 2019, PolitiFact reported that Ocasio-Cortez is "one of the most targeted politicians for hoax claims, despite the fact that she just entered Congress as a freshman". Fake quotes attributed to her, fake photos of her, and false rumors about her have spread on social media. Some of these have originated from 4chan and r/The_Donald. By July 2019, the fake material included attributing things Trump said to Ocasio-Cortez, such as "I have a very good brain and I've said lots of things." On July 18, 2019, Charlie Rispoli, a police officer from Gretna, Louisiana, posted on Facebook an apparent threat to shoot Ocasio-Cortez, calling her a "vile idiot" who "needs a round, and I don't mean the kind she used to serve" as a bartender. Rispoli posted the comment in response to a fake news article that falsely quoted Ocasio-Cortez as saying, "We pay soldiers too much". Rispoli was fired for his post and his Facebook account was deleted.
Ocasio-Cortez is known to wear red lipstick, usually by the American makeup brand Stila Cosmetics in the shade "Beso", as a style trait of Latina women from the Bronx. In a skincare tutorial for Vogue, she explained that beauty and femininity are important to her because these things are often used against women in politics and society, and that self-love is like a "mini protest" against misogynistic critiques.
Ocasio-Cortez attended the 2021 Met Gala, which had the theme "In America: a Lexicon of Fashion". The Met Gala is an annual fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art that is overseen by Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who selects every invitee and designer pairing. Ocasio-Cortez wore an organza gown emblazoned with the phrase "Tax the Rich". As an elected official in New York City, she was considered a guest of the museum, and as such did not have to buy a ticket, which costs persons other than elected officials at least $35,000. In response, Ocasio-Cortez said her critics were using a sexist double standard and that she "punctured the fourth wall of excess and spectacle". Designer Aurora James also said the extremely wealthy people in attendance needed to see the message in person.
In September 2021, the American Accountability Foundation filed an ethics complaint against Ocasio-Cortez for attending the Met Gala. The AAF claimed that her attendance amounted to accepting an illegal gift since her estimated $35,000 ticket was paid for by Condé Nast, a for-profit company, not a charity.
Ocasio-Cortez is a member of an informal group of progressive members of Congress called "the Squad", initially including Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib. On July 14, 2019, Trump attacked the Squad (which had only four members at the time) in a tweet, saying that they should "go back and help fix" the countries they came from rather than criticize the American government. He continued to make similar comments over the next several days, even though three of the women, including Ocasio-Cortez, were born in the United States. Ocasio-Cortez responded in a tweet that "the President's words [yesterday], telling four American Congresswomen of color 'go back to your own country' is hallmark language of white supremacists." She later added, "We don't leave the things that we love, and when we love this country, what that means is that we propose the solutions to fix it." Days later, Trump falsely asserted that Ocasio-Cortez called "our country and our people 'garbage'"; she had actually said that Americans should not be content with moderate policies that are "10% better from garbage". Trump also falsely claimed that Ocasio-Cortez said "illegal immigrants are more American" than Americans who tried to keep them out; she actually said that "women and children on that border that are trying to seek refuge and opportunity" in America "are acting more American" than those who tried to keep them out. The Squad grew in 2020, 2022, and 2024, with Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Greg Casar, Summer Lee, and Delia Ramirez joining.
Ocasio-Cortez submitted her first piece of legislation, the Green New Deal, to the House on February 7, 2019. She and Senator Ed Markey released a joint non-binding resolution laying out the main elements of a 10-year "economic mobilization" that "would phase out fossil fuel use and overhaul the nation's infrastructure." Their plan called for implementing the "social cost of carbon" that was part of the Obama administration's plans to address climate change. In the process it aimed to create jobs. According to CNBC, an initial outline the Green New Deal called for "completely ditching fossil fuels, upgrading or replacing 'every building' in the country and 'totally overhaul[ing] transportation' to the point where 'air travel stops becoming necessary'". The outline set a goal of having the U.S. "creating 'net zero' greenhouse gases in 10 years. Why 'net zero'? The lawmakers explained: 'We set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we aren't sure that we'll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast.'" Activist groups such as Greenpeace and the Sunrise Movement came out in favor of the plan. No Republican lawmakers voiced support. The plan gained support from some Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker; other Democrats, such as Senator Dianne Feinstein and House speaker Nancy Pelosi, dismissed the proposal (Pelosi has referred to it as "the green dream, or whatever they call it").
On March 26, Senate Republicans called for an early vote on the Green New Deal without allowing discussion or expert testimony. Markey said Republicans were trying to "make a mockery" of the debate and called the vote a "sham". In protest, Senate Democrats voted "present" or against the bill, resulting in a 57–0 defeat on the Senate floor.
In March 2019, a group of UK activists proposed that the Labour Party adopt a similar plan, "Labour for a Green New Deal". The group said it was inspired by the Sunrise Movement and the work Ocasio-Cortez has done in the US.
On July 20, 2020, U.S. Representatives Ted Yoho and Roger Williams accosted Ocasio-Cortez on the Capitol steps, where Yoho (as overheard by a journalist) called her "disgusting" and told her "You are out of your freaking mind" for recently suggesting that poverty and unemployment were driving a spike in crime in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic amid her ongoing advocacy for cutting police budgets. Ocasio-Cortez told Yoho he was being "rude". As she walked away from Yoho into the Capitol, Yoho called her a "fucking bitch". Yoho addressed the matter on the House floor and, without naming Ocasio-Cortez, apologized for the "abrupt manner of the conversation" with her, claiming that "offensive name calling, words attributed to me by the press, were never spoken to my colleagues", and concluding: "I cannot apologize for my passion". Ocasio-Cortez responded with a speech saying that the incident was emblematic of a "culture ... accepting of violence and violent language against women ... In using that language, in front of the press, he gave permission to use that language against his wife, his daughters, women in his community, and I am here to stand up to say that is not acceptable."
In November 2021, Representative Paul Gosar posted a version of the title sequence of the anime series Attack on Titan on social media that he had edited with the faces of Ocasio-Cortez, Joe Biden, and himself superimposed on the show's characters, depicting Gosar attacking them with swords and killing Ocasio-Cortez. Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for law enforcement and the House Ethics Committee to investigate it as a threat. Pelosi opened discussion on the House floor, saying that Gosar's actions demanded a response: "We cannot have members joking about murdering each other or threatening the president of the United States. This is both an indictment of our elected officials and an insult to the institution of the House of Representatives. It's not just about us as members of Congress. It is a danger that it represents to everyone in the country." When Republican House members refused to condemn the video, Ocasio-Cortez responded that she believed the video was "part of a pattern that normalizes violence", adding, "I believe this is a part of a concerted strategy and I think it's very important for us to draw a strict line a strong line for material consequence". She gave a six-minute floor speech, saying, "This is not about me. This is not about Representative Gosar. This is about what we're willing to accept." The House voted to censure Gosar, mostly along party lines. The last time the House censured a lawmaker was in 2010.
In a nearly 90-minute Instagram Live video made in February 2021, Ocasio-Cortez said that she had previously experienced sexual assault, and recounted her experience of fear during the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, when she was in her office (in the Cannon House Office Building). She said she had hidden in her office bathroom before being startled by a Capitol Police officer who entered her office suite and shouted "Where is she?" before ordering her and her staff to evacuate to a different House Office Building. Ocasio-Cortez said the officer did not self-identify, and said she first believed the officer's voice was that of an attacker. She described sheltering in place in Representative Katie Porter's office and preparing for what she believed would be an assault by rioters on their offices. She said, "I had a very close encounter where I thought I was going to die."
Ocasio-Cortez gave her first major convention speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, where she was given a primetime slot. She expressed support for the Harris-Walz campaign and heavily criticized Trump, calling him a union buster who would "sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his own pockets and greasing the palms of his Wall Street friends". She leaned into her middle-class background and said that Harris would support the middle class because she is from it and understands it. Ocasio-Cortez also addressed the Gaza war, saying Harris was "working tirelessly" for a ceasefire and hostage deal.
The speech was well received. Politico wrote that Ocasio-Cortez was one of the party's "most celebrated stars" and that the establishment acknowledged it. The speech also led to speculation about whether Ocasio-Cortez would run for higher office.
Ocasio-Cortez reacted to the 2021 Texas power crisis by organizing a fundraiser to provide food, water, and shelter to affected Texans. The fundraiser, which began on February 18, raised $2 million in its first day and $5 million by February 21. The money was given to organizations such as the Houston Food Bank and the North Texas Food Bank. Ocasio-Cortez also traveled to Houston to help volunteers with recovery.
On April 15, 2021, Ocasio-Cortez and three members of Congress called a press conference to announce a bill that they had introduced to implement postal banking pilot programs in rural and low-income urban neighborhoods where millions of households cannot access or afford standard banking services. Ocasio-Cortez described the families she sees in her urban community who need to rely on check cashing companies that charge exorbitant interest rates due to the absence of mainstream banks. "They'll show up to a check cashing place and imagine cashing your stimulus check...and having 10 to 20% of that check taken away from you."
On November 5, 2021, Ocasio-Cortez was one of six House Democrats to break with their party and vote against the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, as it was decoupled from the social safety net provisions in the Build Back Better Act.
In September 2022, Ocasio-Cortez was asked about running for president. She said, "I hold two contradictory things [in mind] at the same time. One is just the relentless belief that anything is possible. But at the same time, my experience here has given me a front-row seat to how deeply and unconsciously, as well as consciously, so many people in this country hate women. And they hate women of color. People ask me questions about the future. And realistically, I can't even tell you if I'm going to be alive in September [of 2022]. And that weighs very heavily on me. And it's not just the right wing. Misogyny transcends political ideology: left, right, center."
In May 2023, Ocasio-Cortez was a part of a bipartisan group, including Matt Gaetz, Brian Fitzpatrick, and Raja Krishnamoorthi, that introduced the "Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act". The act bars members of Congress from owning or trading individual stocks.
In June 2024, following reports that Clarence Thomas accepted undisclosed gifts from conservatives, Ocasio-Cortez said the Court was "corrupted by money and extremism" and undemocratic. She and Representative Jamie Raskin led a congressional meeting about the Court, and explored options for holding justices accountable. On June 25, they introduced the "High Court Gift Ban Act", which would impose restrictions on the gifts given to justices.
In July 2024, Ocasio-Cortez supported and co-led the "DEFIANCE Act", which would allow people to sue creators and distributors of non-consensual deepfake pornography of themselves, something that had previously been done to her.
On July 1, after the Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. United States that presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution for official actions, Ocasio-Cortez announced she would file articles of impeachment against justices. She said the court was corrupt and that Congress must defend the nation against an "authoritarian capture". On July 10, Ocasio-Cortez officially introduced articles of impeachment against Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, co-sponsored by seven House Democrats. The resolution accused the justices of failing to recuse themselves from cases despite personal bias and not disclosing lavish gifts they received. The resolution cited the involvement of Ginni Thomas in attempts to overturn the 2020 election and the presence of "Stop the Steal" symbols on Alito's properties as personal bias. In a statement, she said that corruption in the court had become a constitutional crisis that threatened democracy. Legal experts said the case would likely fail, but was still important because it drew attention to the justices' conduct.
In December 2024, Ocasio-Cortez made a bid for ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, but lost to the more senior Gerry Connolly.
Ocasio-Cortez has been described as progressive, left-wing, left-wing populist, and far-left.
Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and embraces the democratic socialist label as part of her political identity. In an interview on NBC's Meet the Press, she described democratic socialism as "part of what I am. It's not all of what I am. And I think that that's a very important distinction." In response to a question about democratic socialism ultimately calling for an end to capitalism during a Firing Line interview on PBS, she answered: "Ultimately, we are marching towards progress on this issue. I do think that we are going to see an evolution in our economic system of an unprecedented degree, and it's hard to say what direction that that takes." Later at a conference she said "To me, capitalism is irredeemable."
Ocasio-Cortez supports progressive ideals such as workplace democracy, single-payer Medicare for All, tuition-free public college and trade school, a federal job guarantee, the cancellation of all $1.6 trillion of outstanding student debt, guaranteed family leave, abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ending the privatization of prisons, enacting gun-control policies, and energy policy relying on 100% renewables. She told Anderson Cooper that she favors policies that "most closely resemble what we see in the UK, in Norway, in Finland, in Sweden".
Ocasio-Cortez has rejected state socialism, calling it "undemocratic" and "easily corrupted", but has expressed support for worker control of the means of production. She has also said that market economies are not incompatible with democratic socialism as long as workers control companies, citing worker cooperatives as a model.
Ocasio-Cortez supports raising the marginal tax rate on top income earners to fund the implementation of her policy goals. She was among the 46 House Democrats who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. Ocasio-Cortez has called for reducing defense spending. In December 2022, she was the only House Democrat to vote against an omnibus spending package because it increased funding for defense and federal agencies that oversee immigration.
In late 2020, Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib proposed a public banking bill to encourage creation of state and local public banks by giving them access to facilities from the Federal Reserve and setting national guidelines on public banking. In April 2021, Ocasio-Cortez announced a bill that she and three senators had introduced to implement postal banking pilot programs in rural and low-income urban neighborhoods where millions of households cannot access or afford standard banking services.
Ocasio-Cortez has been a vocal supporter of labor rights, including a $15 per hour federal minimum wage. In May 2019, she returned to bartending at the Queensboro Restaurant in Jackson Heights, Queens, to promote the Raise the Wage Act, which would increase the minimum hourly wage for restaurant servers and other tipped workers from $2.13 to $15. Speaking to restaurant workers, customers and reporters, she criticized an exemption in U.S. minimum wage law for restaurants and the service sector that allows them to be paid less than $7.25 per hour, saying, "Any job that pays $2.13 per hour is not a job, it is indentured servitude." On January 20, 2021, Ocasio-Cortez skipped the inauguration of Joe Biden in order to join the 2021 Hunts Point Produce Market strike in the Bronx.
In September 2019, Ocasio-Cortez introduced an anti-poverty policy proposal (packaged in a bundle called "A Just Society") that would take into account the cost of childcare, health care, and "new necessities" like Internet access when measuring poverty. The proposal would cap annual rent increases and ensure access to social welfare programs for people with convictions and undocumented immigrants. According to the U.S. census, about 40 million Americans live in poverty.
Ocasio-Cortez has proposed a marginal tax as high as 70% on income above $10 million to pay for the Green New Deal. According to tax experts contacted by The Washington Post, this tax would bring in extra revenue of $720 billion per decade. But an analysis by the think tank Tax Foundation estimated that, after accounting for macroeconomic effects, the proposal would increase tax revenue by $189.1 billion over ten years if it is applied only to ordinary income, or decrease tax revenue by 53.1 billion if it is applied to all forms of income, including capital gains. Ocasio-Cortez has opposed and voted against the pay-as-you-go rule supported by Democratic leaders, which requires deficit-neutral fiscal policy, with all new expenditures balanced by tax increases or spending cuts. She and Representative Ro Khanna have condemned the rule for hamstringing new or expanded progressive policies. Drawing a parallel with the Great Depression, she has argued that the Green New Deal needs deficit spending like the original New Deal.
Ocasio-Cortez opposed a planned deal by New York City to give Amazon.com $3 billion in state and city subsidies and tax breaks to build a secondary headquarters (Amazon HQ2) that was expected to bring in $27 billion in tax revenue for the city and state, in an area near her congressional district, saying that the city should instead itself invest $3 billion in the district. Conservative columnist Marc Thiessen argued that "New York does not have $3 billion in cash" it would "give" to Amazon, and that between 25,000 and 40,000 new jobs, in addition to the high-paying tech jobs Amazon would have created, disappeared when Amazon left and "her economic illiteracy is dangerous" because "by helping to drive Amazon away, she did not save New York $3 billion; she cost New York $27 billion." She "boasted" that she was right after Amazon ceased its construction of the HQ2 project in Virginia, which it chose over New York. The progressive think tank Data for Progress wrote that New York taxpayers "would be subsidizing Amazon's activities in the city by surrendering $3 billion in would-be tax revenue", that there were "enormous hidden costs associated with Amazon's residence" and that "the argument that the city would not literally pay cash to Amazon is superficial and semantic". Data for Progress also noted that Amazon instead announced it would bring 1,500 jobs to New York without a tax break. Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg also opposed the tax breaks.
In 2024, Ocasio-Cortez took part in a live-streamed roundtable with Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, discussing "efforts to check unlawful corporate power". Later, in response to investor and Harris supporter Mark Cuban saying that he wouldn't keep Khan, Ocasio-Cortez said "anyone goes near Lina Khan and there will be an out and out brawl".
Ocasio-Cortez has called for "more environmental hardliners in Congress", calling climate change "the single biggest national security threat for the United States and the single biggest threat to worldwide industrialized civilization". Referring to a recent United Nations report indicating that the effects of climate change could become irreversible unless carbon emissions are reined in within the next 12 years, she has argued that global warming must be addressed immediately to avert human extinction.
Ocasio-Cortez's environmental plan, the Green New Deal, advocates for the U.S. to transition to an electrical grid running on 100% renewable energy and to end the use of fossil fuels within ten years. The changes, estimated to cost roughly $2.5 trillion per year, would be financed in part by higher taxes on the wealthy. She has said she has an "open mind" about nuclear power's role in the Green New Deal, but has been criticized for ignoring it in her proposals for the deal.
In 2024, Ocasio-Cortez, supported by Bowman and Sanders, introduced the "Green New Deal for Public Housing", a plan to fund the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and help it transition to clean energy.
Ocasio-Cortez criticized the American companies Activision Blizzard and Apple for censoring pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. She co-signed a letter to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick that read, "As China amplifies its campaign of intimidation, you and your company must decide whether to look beyond the bottom line and promote American values—like freedom of speech and thought—or to give in to Beijing's demands in order to preserve market access."
A bipartisan letter by Ocasio-Cortez and seven other lawmakers fiercely criticized the NBA's handling of a controversy involving a tweet by Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey supporting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. The lawmakers wrote that the NBA's response not only "sold out an American citizen" but also "reinforces the Chinese Communist Party view that those who point to Chinese repression in Hong Kong are as best stating opinions, not facts", as well as being "a betrayal of fundamental American values".
Ocasio-Cortez voted to withdraw U.S. military aid for Saudi Arabia's intervention in Yemen, and was among 56 Democrats to vote in favor of H.Con.Res. 21, which directed President Joe Biden to remove U.S. troops from Syria within 180 days.
Ocasio-Cortez criticized President Trump's administration for escalating tensions with Iran, saying that it would bring the country into a "military conflict that is completely irresponsible".
Ocasio-Cortez supported the Mahsa Amini protests, saying, "right to choose belongs to us all, from hijabs to reproductive care". This was criticized by the conservative Washington Examiner, which said that Iranian repression was not comparable to abortion restrictions.
In May 2018, Ocasio-Cortez criticized the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) use of deadly force against Palestinians participating in the 2018 Gaza border protests, calling it a "massacre" in a tweet. In a July 2018 interview, she said she was "a proponent of a two-state solution" and called Israel's presence in the West Bank an "occupation of Palestine". After being asked to elaborate, she responded she was not "the expert on geopolitics on this issue". Her use of the term "occupation" drew backlash from a number of pro-Israel groups and commentators. Others defended her remarks, citing the United Nations' designation of the territory in the West Bank as occupied. In July 2019, Ocasio-Cortez voted against a House resolution introduced by Representative Brad Schneider condemning the Global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement targeting Israel. The resolution passed 398–17.
Ocasio-Cortez warned that Israel's planned annexation of Palestinian territories in the occupied West Bank "would lay the groundwork for Israel becoming an apartheid state". She wrote to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that she would work to "pursue legislation that conditions the $3.8 billion in U.S. military funding to Israel to ensure that U.S. taxpayers are not supporting annexation in any way". AIPAC condemned the letter, saying it threatened the U.S.-Israel relationship.
In May 2021, Ocasio-Cortez issued a statement condemning Israel's evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem. She criticized President Biden for saying Israel "has a right to defend itself", arguing that "blanket statements like these [with] little context or acknowledgement of what precipitated this cycle of violence—namely, the expulsions of Palestinians and attacks on Al Aqsa—dehumanize Palestinians [and] imply the US will look the other way at human rights violations."
On September 23, 2021, Ocasio-Cortez abruptly changed her vote from "no" to "present" on a bill providing $1 billion for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system, citing the "hateful targeting" she had received surrounding the bill. She apologized for her vote after receiving criticism on social media from some supporters of Israel and of Palestine but maintained her opposition to the bill due to Israel's "persistent human rights abuses against the Palestinian people".
On July 18, 2023, Ocasio-Cortez and eight other progressive Democrats (Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Andre Carson, Summer Lee, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Delia Ramirez, and Rashida Tlaib), voted against a congressional non-binding resolution proposed by August Pfluger that "the State of Israel is not a racist or apartheid state", that Congress rejects "all forms of antisemitism and xenophobia", and that "the United States will always be a staunch partner and supporter of Israel". She argued that it was wrong to pair "accusations of antisemitism with real concerns around the human rights crisis in the region" and that combining a "vote on antisemitism and discussion of apartheid and...two-tier legal systems is very cynical".
In 2023, Ocasio-Cortez condemned the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, calling it "horrifying attacks against innocent civilians". On October 12, she criticized Israel's plans to block electricity, water and fuel from Gaza, calling it a "collective punishment and a violation of international law". On October 16, she signed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza war. On March 22, 2024, she characterized Israel's assault on Gaza and the Gaza Strip famine as genocide.
Asked what the Biden administration could have done better in the situation, Ocasio-Cortez said it could have enforced its red line on the Rafah offensive, investigated its weapons shipments to Israel, provided heavier sanctions in response to the occupation of the West Bank, and "rein in" Netanyahu. In a separate statement, she called for halting weapons transfers to Israel.
In January 2024, the U.S. and other countries cut funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) over allegations that certain staff members participated in the Hamas attacks. On January 29, Ocasio-Cortez acknowledged the reports, but said that cutting funding to UNRWA was "unacceptable" and that the U.S. "should restore aid immediately" because of the agency's humanitarian work.
Ocasio-Cortez boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 2024 speech to Congress, calling him a war criminal.
On September 18, 2024, Ocasio-Cortez condemned Israel for the 2024 Lebanon electronic device attacks.
After the contentious confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Ocasio-Cortez urged Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to expand the court if he won and their party achieved a Senate majority. In April 2021, she supported a bill to increase the Court's size. She again called for expansion in September 2021 after the Court voted not to grant an emergency stay of the Texas Heartbeat Bill.
In March 2022, Ocasio-Cortez called on Justice Clarence Thomas to resign over his wife's texts urging President Trump's chief of staff to overturn the 2020 presidential election, raising a possible impeachment effort if he did not. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Ocasio-Cortez called for the impeachment of Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. She alleged that the two had lied under oath about their views on Roe during their confirmation hearings.
In June 2022, after the Supreme Court made several consequential rulings and granted certiorari to Moore v. Harper, which has a potential impact on future elections, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that the U.S. was "witnessing a judicial coup in progress". The next month, she claimed the Court had "gone rogue" and that impeachment, expansion, introduction of ethics rules and recusal requirements should be considered. She added that Thomas should certainly be impeached. Two days later, she led House progressives calling on the Democratic leadership in Congress to strip the Court of its jurisdiction "in the areas of abortion, marriage equality, non-procreative intimacy, and contraception". They pointed to Thomas' concurring opinion in Dobbs, which suggested revisiting cases that established a constitutional right to contraception, same-sex marriage, and gay sex.
In 2019, Ocasio-Cortez supported pay raises for Congress. She wrote, "It's not a fun or politically popular position to take. But consistency is important. ALL workers should get cost of living increases. That's why minimum wage should be pegged to inflation, too." Members of Congress make $174,000 annually; the Speaker makes $223,500 and House leaders make $193,400. Republican Kevin McCarthy joined her in supporting the pay raise, saying he did not want Congress to be a place where only the wealthy can afford to serve. Colleagues such as Joe Cunningham opposed the measure, saying, "We didn't come up here to give ourselves a raise".
On June 28, 2018, Ocasio-Cortez told CNN she would support the first impeachment of President Trump, citing Trump's alleged violations of the Emoluments Clause and saying that "we have to hold everyone accountable and that no person is above that law."
Ocasio-Cortez supported impeaching Trump a second time for his attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election. On January 3, 2021, she said that the Trump–Raffensperger phone call constituted an impeachable offense, and called it a "despicable abuse of power". After January 6, she and many other Democrats co-sponsored an article of impeachment against Trump. Ocasio-Cortez said that Trump should be permanently barred from office and impeached.
In April 2020, Ocasio-Cortez was one of 77 representatives to call for public reports of data on COVID-19 cases in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. In March 2021, she and Representative Jamaal Bowman called on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign, citing the sexual misconduct allegations against him as well as the New York COVID-19 nursing home scandal about the Cuomo administration's reported undercounting of COVID-19 nursing home deaths.
Ocasio-Cortez has called for "solidarity with Puerto Rico". She has advocated for granting Puerto Ricans further civil rights, regardless of Puerto Rico's legal classification. She advocates for voting rights and disaster relief. Ocasio-Cortez was critical of FEMA's response to Hurricane Maria and the federal government's unwillingness to address Puerto Rico's political status. She believes the federal government should increase investment in Puerto Rico. In August 2020, Ocasio-Cortez and Nydia Velázquez introduced the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act of 2020, which was referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
On March 18, 2021, Ocasio-Cortez, Velázquez and Senator Bob Menendez introduced a new version, the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act of 2021, with over 70 co-sponsors in the House and seven co-sponsors in the Senate, including one Republican.
After the June 2024 presidential debate, Ocasio-Cortez, who previously supported Biden during the campaign, said that she had spoken with Biden and that he made clear he was staying in the race. She said that she supported him and that her focus was defeating Republicans in the election. Later, on July 19, she held an Instagram Live in which she said that replacing Biden was risky and legally challenging, but suggested that nominating Vice President Kamala Harris was better than an open convention. When Biden withdrew from the race, she endorsed Harris.
Ocasio-Cortez supports transitioning to a single-payer healthcare system and considers medical care a human right. She says that a single government health insurer should cover every American, reducing overall costs. Her campaign website says, "Almost every other developed nation in the world has universal healthcare. It's time the United States catch up to the rest of the world in ensuring all people have real healthcare coverage that doesn't break the bank." Many 2020 Democratic presidential candidates adopted the Medicare-for-all proposal.
In June 2019 and in July 2021, Ocasio-Cortez proposed legislation that would remove restrictions placed on researching the medical use of psilocybin.
In 2024, Ocasio-Cortez said of the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson: "this is not to say that an act of violence is justified", but "people interpret and feel and experience denied claims as an act of violence against them".
Ocasio-Cortez supports codifying the right to abortion, and is a member of the House pro-choice caucus. On July 19, 2022, after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, she and 17 other members of Congress were arrested in an act of civil disobedience for refusing to clear a street during a protest for reproductive rights outside the Supreme Court Building.
Ocasio-Cortez campaigned in favor of establishing tuition-free public colleges and trade schools. She has said she is still paying off student loans herself and wants to cancel all student debt.
Ocasio-Cortez has expressed support for defunding and abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency on multiple occasions. In February 2018 she called it "a product of the Bush-era Patriot Act suite of legislation" and "an enforcement agency that takes on more of a paramilitary tone every single day". That June, she said she would "stop short of fully disbanding the agency", and would rather "create a pathway to citizenship for more immigrants through decriminalization". She later clarified that this does not mean ceasing all deportations. Two days before the primary election, Ocasio-Cortez attended a protest at an ICE child-detention center in Tornillo, Texas. She was the only Democrat to vote against H.R. 648, a bill to fund and reopen the government, because it funded ICE.
In June 2019, Ocasio-Cortez compared the detention centers for undocumented immigrants under the Trump administration at the Mexico–United States border to "concentration camps". She cited "expert analysis", linking to an Esquire article quoting Andrea Pitzer, author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps, who had made a similar claim. Some academics supported Ocasio-Cortez's use of the term for the forced detention of immigrants; others strongly criticized it, saying it showed disrespect for Holocaust victims. In response to criticism from both Republicans and Democrats, Ocasio-Cortez said they had conflated concentration camps ("the mass detention of civilians without trial") with death camps. She refused to apologize for using the term: "If that makes you uncomfortable, fight the camps, not the nomenclature."
In July 2019, Ocasio-Cortez visited migrant detention centers and other facilities in Texas as part of a congressional delegation to witness the border crisis firsthand. She called the conditions "horrifying". She said that women in one cell said they had not had access to showers for two weeks and were told to drink water from the toilet when their sink broke, and that one woman said that her daughters had been taken from her two weeks earlier and she did not know where they were.
In January 2021, Ocasio-Cortez expressed support for the Roadmap to Freedom resolution to guide future immigration policy championed by Representative Pramila Jayapal. The resolution aims to safeguard vulnerable migrants while reducing criminal prosecutions of migrants.
In February 2021, when the Biden administration reopened a Carrizo Springs, Texas, center to house unaccompanied migrant children, Ocasio-Cortez responded that such actions "never will be okay—no matter the administration or party". For short-term measures to address the situation, she called for mandatory licensing for such centers and urged reconsideration of how the centers are "contracted out".
Ocasio-Cortez is a proponent of LGBTQ rights and equality. She has said she supports the community and thanked its members for their role in her campaign. At the January 2019 New York City Women's March in Manhattan, Ocasio-Cortez gave a detailed speech in support of measures needed to ensure LGBTQ equality in the workplace and elsewhere. She has also spoken in support of transgender rights, specifically saying, "Trans rights are civil rights are human rights." Later, she appeared on a video game live stream to help raise money for Mermaids, a UK-based charity for transgender children.
At the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on February 27, 2020, Ocasio-Cortez argued for LGBTQ equality in the context of her religious background. Referencing a Catholic hospital that refused a hysterectomy for a transgender man, she argued, "[t]here is nothing holy about rejecting medical care of people, no matter who they are, on the grounds of what their identity is. There is nothing holy about turning someone away from a hospital."
When asked what America would look like if it defunded the police, she responded on Instagram:
The MIT Lincoln Laboratory named the asteroid 23238 Ocasio-Cortez after her when she was a senior in high school in recognition of her second-place finish in the 2007 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Ocasio-Cortez was named the 2017 National Hispanic Institute Person of the Year by Ernesto Nieto. In 2019, Ocasio-Cortez received the Adelle Foley Award. She was named as one of the 2019 BBC 100 Women.
After the death of Ocasio-Cortez's father in 2008, her mother and grandmother moved to Florida due to financial hardship. She still has family in Puerto Rico, where her grandfather was living in a nursing home before he died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Ocasio-Cortez has said that "to be Puerto Rican is to be the descendant of ... African Moors [and] slaves, Taino Indians, Spanish colonizers, Jewish refugees, and likely others. We are all of these things and something else all at once—we are Boricua." She has said she has some Sephardic Jewish ancestry.
Ocasio-Cortez is a Catholic. She discussed her faith and its impact on her life and her campaign for criminal justice reform in a 2018 article she wrote for America, the magazine of the Jesuit order in the United States.
During the 2018 election campaign, Ocasio-Cortez resided in Parkchester, Bronx, with her partner, web developer Riley Roberts. They became engaged in April 2022 in Puerto Rico.
In 2021, the watchdog group OpenSecrets, analyzing financial disclosure forms, ranked Ocasio-Cortez one of the least wealthy members of the 116th Congress, with a maximum net worth of $30,000.
In February 2021, Ocasio-Cortez said that she had been sexually assaulted. That May, she said that she had been in psychotherapy after the January 6 United States Capitol attack, which she called "extraordinarily traumatizing", saying she "did not know if I was going to make it to the end of that day alive".
Ocasio-Cortez is a fan of the New York Yankees. She has a pet French Bulldog named Deco, after the Art Deco movement.