Okasio Cortes, Alexandria

The daughter of New Yorker Sergio Ocacio Romana and Puerto Rican Blanca Ocacio Cortes. My father was an architect and CEO of the small company “Kirschenbaum & Ocasio-Roman Architects”, my mother worked as a cleaner ^[4] . Alexandria was born in Parkchester, in the Bronx borough, one of New York 's five boroughs . When she was 5 years old, the family moved to the town of Yorktown Heights in the county of New York - Westchester. She graduated from school in 2007. For the second place of her microbiological project at the review of scientific and engineering achievements of schoolchildren Intel International Science and Engineering Fair , the asteroid 23238 Ocasio-Cortez was named in her honor.

Graduated with honors from Boston University in 2011, where she studied international relations and economics. She was elected president of the organization of Latin American university students, spent three months on an internship in Africa. In her student years, she lost her father who died of cancer, and faced financial difficulties. Having received her education, she returned to her native Parkchester and earned a living as a waitress and a barmaid ^[5] . She worked in two shifts of 18 hours a day, selling tacos and pouring cocktails.

She dealt with education issues in the nonprofit organization ^[6] . She founded Brook Avenue Press, which specializes in colorful children's literature that creates the auspicious image of the Bronx. In 2016, she took part in protests against the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline in Michigan . In the past, she worked in the apparatus of Senator Edward Kennedy ; in 2016, she organized the election campaign of Bernie Sanders during the primaries of the Democratic Party ^[4] .

Political career

On June 26, 2018, she sensationally won the 14th constituency in New York in the Democratic primary, becoming the official candidate for the upcoming U.S. House of Representatives elections in November. Okasio-Cortes received 57.5% of the vote, although her rival was an experienced politician, long-term holder of this deputy mandate, Joseph Crowley ^{[7] [8]} .

In an interview, she explained her success by the fact that 70% of the residents of her district are not white, but they never had a representative in Congress from their own environment (in addition, 50% of the population of the district are immigrants) ^[9] .

The outcome of the primary elections was especially unexpected in view of the fact that Okasio-Cortes belongs to the extreme left wing of the Democratic Party - it is, in particular, an activist of the organization Democratic Socialists of America ^[10] .

On July 11, 2018, Okasio-Cortez announced a new unexpected victory in the primaries in one of New York’s constituencies, where she did not run for office, but members of , who did not want to support other candidates, wrote her name in voting ballots ^[11] .

Okasio Cortes then went on a trip across the United States with a campaign to support other candidates sharing her belief in the need for health insurance for all, raising the cost of living , free higher education, and comprehensive criminal justice and immigration reform. She also recorded a video clip of political advertising stating:

It’s time for us to recognize that not all Democrats are the same. That a democrat who takes money from corporations, receives profits from the purchase of mortgaged property, does not live here, does not send his children to our schools, does not drink our water or breathe our air, should not represent us.

Original text

- It's time we acknowledged that not all Democrats are the same. That a Democrat who takes corporate money, profits off foreclosure, doesn't live here, doesn't send his kids to our schools, doesn't drink our water or breathe our air cannot possibly represent us.

- ^[12]

On November 6, 2018, Ocacio Cortes won the House of Representatives elections from the 14th constituency of New York, with the support of 78% of voters. Her main rival was Republican Anthony Pappas, who, impressed by his 14-year divorce lawsuit, made the core of the campaign the requirement to provide citizens with the right to file lawsuits against judges (his defeat was predicted in opinion polls with a probability of 99.9%). At 29, Okasio Cortes became the youngest woman ever elected to the US Congress ^[13] .

U.S. House of Representatives

A statement made by Okasio Cortes on January 22, 2019 at the Martin Luther King Memorial Forum in New York received great publicity. Journalist asked her whether the world, which allows the existence of billionaires, can be considered moral, and received a decisive answer: "No." But then, Ocacio Cortes added that she does not consider specific people, such as Bill Gates or Warren Buffett , as immoral people, but condemns the system itself, in which there are billionaires, and in remote areas of Alabama people suffer from trichophytosis due to lack of access to the system health care ^[14] .

• Karina Orlova. Leftist extremism as the fate of Democrats in the United States and an alternative to Trump (Neopr.) . Echo of Moscow (June 27, 2018). Date of treatment August 7, 2018.
• Irina Dubina. Who is Alexandria Okasio-Cortes and what is interesting about her image (neopr.) . RBC (July 2, 2018). Date of treatment August 7, 2018.
• Ilya Matveev. American socialism. Will the right populist replace the left? (unspecified) . Republic (August 7, 2018). Date of treatment August 9, 2018.
• 10 facts about Alexandria Okasio-Cortes: young politics and the new it-girl (neopr.) . Hello! (July 4, 2018). Date of treatment August 7, 2018.