Ocasio Cortez History
At a town hall meeting on the Green New Deal, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got her history wrong when she was asked what lessons she learned from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.
The freshman Democrat, who sponsored the Green New Deal in the House, said the New Deal was so popular that Republicans “had to amend the Constitution of the United States to make sure Roosevelt did not get reelected.” In fact, the GOP-controlled Congress introduced and passed a constitutional amendment limiting presidents to two terms in 1947 — two years after Roosevelt died in office.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a third-generation Bronxite, educator, and organizer serving the 14th district of New York in the Bronx and Queens. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was a bartender when she pulled together a scrappy populist campaign for US Congress and stunned the political world by unseating a powerful incumbent Democrat.
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (also known by her initials AOC) is a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives. In 2018, with little financial backing, she ran an insurgent progressive campaign to win the Democratic Primary for her local district. Since her election, Ocasio-Cortez has become one of the leading progressive voices in America. She supports.
- Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York sailed to an overwhelming victory on Tuesday over a first-time Republican challenger who, despite his long-shot credentials, raised more than $10.
The Green New Deal is a nonbinding resolution that provides a broad blueprint for how the U.S. might address climate change over the next 10 years, while creating well-paying jobs and protecting vulnerable communities. It has been criticized by Republicans as too expensive, and even some within the Democratic Party find the plan too ambitious.
At the March 29 town hall meeting, which was hosted by MSNBC, Ocasio-Cortez pushed back at the notion that her plan is too bold. When asked by an audience member (at about 15 minutes into the video) about the lessons of Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s, the New York congresswoman talked about the need to overcome “fear within our own party” about being “too bold.”
Roosevelt’s New Deal, which was in response to the Great Depression, was an ambitious legislative agenda that changed banking laws, created work relief programs and introduced new agricultural programs, among other things.
“I think there’s a couple of lessons. One is that when we look into our history, when our party was boldest, time of the New Deal, the Great Society, the Civil Rights Act and so on. We had and carried super majorities in the House, in the Senate. We carried the presidency,” she said. “They had to amend the Constitution of the United States to make sure Roosevelt did not get reelected.”
Ocasio-Cortez has a point that Roosevelt’s unprecedented time in office — he won a fourth term in 1944 — was the impetus for the 22nd Amendment. In fact, Roosevelt’s 1944 Republican opponent, Thomas Dewey, embraced such an amendment near the end of that election.
According to the book “FDR, Dewey and the Election of 1944,” Dewey gave a speech on Oct. 31, 1943, in Buffalo, where he came out “in favor of a constitutional amendment limiting future presidents to two terms in office, since, as he said, ‘four terms or sixteen years, is the most dangerous threat to our freedom ever proposed.'” (See page 290.)
But the amendment wasn’t introduced and passed until after the Republicans took control of the House and Senate in the 1946 elections. It was introduced in February 1947 and passed the following month.
Roosevelt died of a massive stroke two years earlier on April 12, 1945.
The 22nd Amendment was finally ratified on Feb. 27, 1951, and was certified as part of the Constitution on March 1, 1951.
A 28-year-old Democratic socialist from New York shook up establishment politics on Tuesday when she beat an incumbent who's served in Congress since 1999. Although the millennial candidate has already made a name for herself, she still needs to clench one more victory come November. But before her name appears on another ballot, there are some facts you should know about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in order to fully understand what she stands for — and what Tuesday's victory means for establishment Democrats.
Born and bred in the Bronx, Ocasio-Cortez ran a campaign that attracted both local and national support. She ultimately ousted Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY), who many Democrats viewed as the natural successor to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The race now comes down to her and Republican candidate Anthony Pappas, an economics and finance professor at St. John’s University.
Ocasio Cortez Education History
Ocasio-Cortez celebrated her primary win on Twitter by thanking Crowley for his service representing New York's 14th congressional district. After his loss, Crowley announced that he would fully support Ocasio-Cortez and all Democrats in the midterm elections.
'This is the start of a movement,' she tweeted, thanking her supporters for carrying her to victory. 'I look forward to working towards a takeback of the House on a strong platform of economic, social, and racial justice for working class New Yorkers & Americans.'
If she beats her Republican opponent in November, the 28-year-old will become the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) currently holds that title after assuming office at the age of 30 back in 2015. Ocasio-Cortez's New York district runs pretty blue, so she has a good chance of winning.
'Women like me aren't supposed to run for office,' she says in her campaign video. 'I wasn't born to a wealthy or powerful family.'
Ocasio-Cortez vowed not to take money from corporate political action committees (PACs) while running for office and criticized her Democratic opponent for doing so. She won despite the fact that Crowley raised roughly $3 million more than her.
While working toward a degree in economics and international relations at Boston University, she worked in the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's (D-MA) office. She primarily focused on foreign affairs and immigration casework, according to her website.
Alexandria Ocasio-cortez History
As a proud Democratic socialist, Ocasio-Cortez worked as an organizer for Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-VT) 2016 bid for the White House.
Campaigning doesn't pay. So while Ocasio-Cortez was trying to build up her congressional campaign, she was also waiting tables and bartending.
The congressional candidate traveled to Tornillo, Texas last weekend to protest the Trump administration's policy of separating children from their parents once they cross the border.
Even before reports of child separation at the border, Ocasio-Cortez called for the U.S. to get rid of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
'ICE is a criminal justice issue. After a long history of sexual assault and uninvestigated ICE custody deaths, it’s time to reset course,' she tweeted in March.
Championing Medicare for All was a major tenant of her campaign. As she put it on her website:
'Extending single payer to the American public has rippling positive effects: people will take less time off work, have more money in their pocket, and other issues — like mass incarceration, homelessness, and more — will also be alleviated with an increase in the number of people getting the mental and physical healthcare they need.'
Ocasio-Cortez's mother is Puerto Rican, and she continues to call for the federal government to do more to help the island rebuild after Hurricane Maria. She wants the U.S. to adopt a Marshall Plan for Puerto Rico that would allow it to 'not only recover from Hurricane Maria, but thrive with modern infrastructure and renewable energy systems,' her website says.
She received numerous celebrity endorsements ahead of Tuesday's primary, including New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, actress Mara Wilson, and the show Broad City.
Ocasio Cortez Parents History
The nation's eyes are now on Ocasio-Cortez as she attempts to carry this momentum to Congress.