Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez grew up in the Bronx and Yorktown, studied economics and international relations at Boston University, and worked as an educator, organizer, and bartender before defeating Rep. Joseph Crowley in the 2018 Democratic primary. She has represented NY-14 since January 2019 and joined the House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2025. In the 119th Congress she has sponsored or co-led legislation on public housing, health-care corporate consolidation, AI data-center construction, and non-consensual deepfake imagery.[1][2][3][4]
Ocasio-Cortez was born in 1989 in the Parkchester neighborhood of the Bronx, and her family later moved to Yorktown, New York, in search of a stronger public school.[3][4] According to her official biography, her mother was born and raised in Puerto Rico, and her father ran a small business in the Bronx.[4] She graduated from Boston University in 2011 with bachelor's degrees in economics and international relations, and she interned in the office of Sen. Ted Kennedy during college.[3][4] She worked as an educational director with the National Hispanic Institute, helping Latino youth with community leadership and college readiness, and, according to her official biography, worked as a waitress and bartender to support her family after her father died.[3][4] She also founded Brook Avenue Press, a children's book publisher, and volunteered as an organizer for Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign in the South Bronx.[3][4]
In June 2018, Ocasio-Cortez defeated incumbent Rep. Joseph Crowley in the Democratic primary, and she won the general election that November.[3][4] She was sworn in in January 2019 as the youngest woman to serve in Congress.[3][4] Her first piece of legislation in Congress was the Green New Deal resolution, and her official biography also lists the Loan Shark Prevention Act, which would cap credit card interest rates at 15%, among her first-term bills.[4] She served on the Oversight and Government Reform and Financial Services Committees from 2019 and on the Natural Resources Committee in the 118th Congress (2023-2025), then joined the Energy and Commerce Committee in January 2025, where she sits on its Energy, Health, and Oversight and Investigations subcommittees.[1][2]
Ocasio-Cortez belongs to the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Medicare for All Caucus, Congressional Renters Caucus, and other House caucuses, and in May 2026 she launched the End Corruption Caucus with Reps. Jason Crow and Mike Levin.[1]
Researched from the cited sources on 2026-10-21.
