A 28-year-old political newcomer beat a veteran politician in New York's Democratic Party congressional primary election Tuesday night in a shocking upset within the Democratic Party.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won 57.5% of the vote, while her opponent, Joe Crowley, had 42.5%. Crowley has represented New York's 14th District since 1999 and had been touted as a potential future House speaker.
Ocasio-Cortez's victory represents a major upset within the Democratic Party, which has seen a schism between establishment and progressive Democrats since the 2016 election.
Less than a year ago, Ocasio-Cortez was working as a bartender to help support her working-class family. This November, she will take on the Republican Anthony Pappas for a seat in the US House of Representatives. A Democrat has won that district by a landslide in the past nine elections.
Scroll down to learn more about her.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx to a working-class family. Her mom is Puerto Rican and her dad is a Bronx native.
"Women like me aren't supposed to run for office," she said in a recent campaign ad. "I wasn't born to a wealthy or powerful family."
Source: Ocasio 2018
Her parents were disappointed in their local schooling system, so her extended family helped fund a move to a better school district.
Shuttling between New York's poorest borough in Bronx, where her extended family lived, and more affluent boroughs was her first experience of income inequality, she told The Intercept.
She went to Boston University, where she studied economics and international relations. After graduation she took up bartending and waitressing jobs to supplement her mother's income as a housecleaner and bus driver.
Source: The Intercept
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