Ocasio-Cortez is a member a group of new progressive members of Congress called "The Squad" along with Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). In July 2019, President Donald Trump attacked the Squad in a tweet, saying that they should "go back and help fix" the countries they came from instead of criticizing the American government. Ocasio-Cortez replied that "the President's words [yesterday], telling four American Congresswomen of color "go back to your own country," is [the] language of white supremacists. We don't leave the things that we love, and when we love this country, what that means is that we [find] the solutions to fix it."
Trump falsely said that she called "our country and our people 'garbage'"; she had actually said that Americans should not be happy with average ideas that are "10% better from garbage." Trump also falsely claimed that she 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 [find] refuge and opportunity" in America "are acting more American" than those who tried to keep them out.
In January 2020, Ocasio-Cortez created a political action committee called Courage to Change. Courage to Change was created to help progressive candidates running for office.
In February 2021, Ocasio-Cortez helped raise money to give food, water, and shelter to Texans affected by the power crisis. She was able to raised $2million on her first day of raising money and $5million by February 21. The money went to organizations such as to state and local food banks. Ocasio-Cortez also traveled to Houston to help volunteers with recovery.
In November 2018, on the first day of congressional , Ocasio-Cortez was part of a climate change protest outside of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's office. Also that month, she supported Pelosi becoming Speaker of the House. She said would support Pelosi if Pelosi "remains the most progressive candidate for speaker." She also said that all the other candidates for speaker were more conservative than Pelosi was. Pelosi was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives after the Democratic Party gained the majority.
In December 2018, Ocasio-Cortez went to an event for new members of the House hosted by the John F. Kennedy School of Government. She wrote on Twitter about the effects of business interests by groups such as the American Enterprise Institute and the Center for Strategic and International Studies: "Lobbyists are here. Goldman Sachs is here. Where's labor? Activists? community leaders?"
In January 2019, when she made her first speech on the floor of Congress, C-SPAN tweeted the video. Within 12 hours, the video of her four-minute speech set the record as C-SPAN's most-watched Twitter video by a member of the House of Representatives.
Ocasio-Cortez questioned the ethic regulations that both the president and members of Congress had during a congressional hearing in February 2019. She said that no laws that stop politicians from taking money from rich business people. 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 was at a Congressional hearing in February 2019, Ocasio-Cortez asked him if Trump rose property values for bank or insurance purposes. Cohen said that Trump may have done tax evasion and fraud in his personal and business tax returns and real-estate documents. "The New York Times" supported her because she asked specific questions for a specific answer.
According to reports in March 2019, Ocasio-Cortez continued to get media coverage early in her congressional career similar to a 2020 presidential candidate. She was called one of the best known Democratic politicians and one of the most talked-about politicians in the United States. Between July 8 and July 14, 2019, she had more social media attention than any of the Democratic presidential candidates, with news articles on Ocasio-Cortez had 4.8 million views, while no Democratic presidential candidate got more than 1.2 million.
Ocasio-Cortez has been talked about many times on Fox News, being mentioned every day from February 25 to April 7, 2019, for a total of 3,181 mentions in 42 days. CNN found that from January to July 2019, she had nearly three times as many mentions on Fox News as on CNN and MSNBC. In a CBS News poll of almost 2,100 people found that more Republicans talked about Ocasio-Cortez than Democrats. She was very unpopular among Republicans and very popular among Democrats.
In March 2019, "PolitiFact" reported that she is "one of the most targeted politicians for hoax claims, despite the fact that she just entered Congress as a freshman." Fake quotes, fake photos, and false rumors about her have spread on social media.
On July 18, 2019, Charlie Rispoli, a police officer from Gretna, posted on Facebook a threat to shoot her. He called her an "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.
On February 7, 2019, Ocasio-Cortez wrote her first piece of legislation, the Green New Deal, and sent it to the Senate. Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts supported the deal, laying out the main ideas of a 10-year economic plan that would slowly remove fossil fuel use. The plan would create jobs and boost the economy. The first version of the Green New Deal wanted the completely stop using fossil fuels. The plan set a goal of having the United States "creating 'net-zero' greenhouse gases in 10 years." Ocasio-Cortez said that "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."
Ocasio-Cortez wanted a marginal tax as high as 70% on income above $10 million to pay for the Green New Deal. Tax experts said in "The Washington Post", that this tax would bring in more money of $720 billion every ten years. She used the Modern Monetary Theory as a reason for higher deficits to pay her agenda. She said that the Green New Deal needs a large amount of money like President Franklin D. Roosevelt's original New Deal during the Great Depression.
Not one Republican supported the Green New Deal. The plan had 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 did not support it. Pelosi called it "the green dream, or whatever they call it."
On March 26, Senate Republicans called for an early vote on the Green New Deal without letting anyone talk before the vote. Senator Ed Markey said Republicans were not being serious about voting for the Green New Deal. 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 activists, inspired by Ocasio-Cortez, in the United Kingdom wanted the Labour Party to create a similar plan, "Labour for a Green New Deal."
In May 2020, Ocasio-Cortez was picked by then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to be in charge of his climate task force. Ocasio-Cortez would help Biden's campaign talk about climate change related problems and solutions.