Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

“I wake up every day, and I'm a Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx. Every single day.”

“I wasn't born to a wealthy or powerful family - mother from Puerto Rico, dad from the South Bronx.”

“Rather than think of it as somewhere to run from, the Bronx is somewhere to invest.”

“It is unacceptable to be disrespectful of Congressman Crowley. He's done some phenomenal, phenomenal work for the Bronx and Queens.”

“I 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.”

“What the Bronx and Queens needs is Medicare for all, tuition-free public college, a federal jobs guarantee, and criminal-justice reform.”

“We know enough to reject the stereotype that people in the Midwest do not care about their brothers and sisters.”

“I think there's a weapon of cynicism to say, 'Protest doesn't work. Organizing doesn't work. Y'all are a bunch of hippies. You know, it doesn't do anything,' because, frankly, it's said out...”

“There has almost never been a period of substantial economic growth in the United States without significant investment. And no investment pays off within the same cycle. No investment pays...”

“Campaigns are so much more expensive than people think they are. Just to keep the lights on is several thousand dollars a month.”

“I was nominated at first by a group called Justice Democrats. They were trying to essentially field non-corporate candidates in the 2018 midterm election. They were looking for people with a...”

“Working-class Americans want a clear champion, and there is nothing radical about moral clarity in 2018.”

“Before ICE, we had Immigration and Naturalization Services, but it wasn't until about 1999 that we chose to criminalize immigration at all. And then, once ICE was established, we really kind...”

“In Puerto Rico, we continue to see the perpetuation of second-class citizenship in the United States.”

“In terms of closing Rikers, we have to close Rikers, but we have to ensure that we're not just taking - that we're not continuing to incarcerate the same level of people. It doesn't do us mu...”

“The biggest hurdle that our communities have is cynicism - saying it's a done deal, who cares; there's no point to voting. If we can get somebody to care, it's a huge victory for the movemen...”

“Mentors 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.”

“I can't name a single issue with roots in race that doesn't have economic implications, and I cannot think of a single economic issue that doesn't have racial implications. The idea that we...”

“I see people like me, who thought someone like me couldn't be in politics, now are saying, 'Oh, wait, I don't need to take money from corporations to run. Maybe I'll run, too.'”

“The way the Queens Democratic party machine has worked, they operate on a politics of exclusion.”