As the first and youngest Latina woman to ever join congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced a total of 23 legislation; including: Medicare for all, tuition-free public college, a federal jobs guarantee, a green new deal, and lastly abolishing ICE. Alexandria was born October 13, 1989 and she’s from the Bronx, New York, NY. Since Alexandria was young, she has wanted to handle different world issues and she had amazing educational opportunities for her so she had no other choice but to take advantage of it. In 2008, her father sadly passed away from cancer and the medical bills started to become a burden on her family. Alexandria had to take up extra shifts and different jobs to help her family, she states “My family almost lost our home in order to keep him alive”. This horrible tragedy made her want to tend to issues impacting lower-class people like herself. She worked as an organizer for the Bernie Sanders campaign. After the general election, she traveled by car speaking out on different issues and traveled to other states. When going to Boston University, the congresswoman had an opportunity to intern in Ted Kennedy’s office. During that time she got a firsthand view of all these different families being separated by ICE. That really inspired me to write about her because I know many people have sadly experienced being separated from their family by ICE. I think it’s very inspiring that she uses her voice and speaks on things she finds wrong.

Alexandria uses her voice to speak on many things that would be helpful to everybody in the U.S. For example, she believes in Medicare for everyone, she voted on abolishing ICE, and she spoke on the horrible burden student loans are on college students. The young congresswoman states, ‘“ “I think it’s so funny, a year ago, I was waiting tables in a restaurant and it was literally easier for me to become the youngest woman in American history elected to Congress than it is to pay off my student loan debt.”.  Alexandria is also very pro-environment, she introduced a new resolution called the green new deal. It’s said that the deal will include renewable and clean energy.  As well as more jobs sponsored by the government, retirement security, workers’ rights, sufficient places to live in, increasing the work salary, quality education, and universal health care. She’s very passionate about her work and you can tell she loves what she does. 

Being a woman isn’t easy and you’re bound to experience harassment and sexism at your job.  Alexandria herself even experienced it. She and Florida republican, Ted Yoho, got into a heated exchange that made Yoho exchange some offensive name calling towards the Democratic Rep. Yoho said “f*ing b*tch” as he was walking out of the building. Yoho claims there was a disagreement on policies and visions for America. Fortunately this argument didn’t phase Alexandria at all and instead she made light of it and stated, “But hey b*tches get stuff done.” After this argument, Yoho apologized for the vulgar language he used yet he still claimed that the press made it up. He states “I will commit to each of you that I will conduct myself from a place of passion and understanding that policy and political disagreement be vigorously debated with the knowledge that we approach the problems facing our nation with the betterment of the country in mind and the people we serve. I cannot apologize for my passion or for loving my God, my family and my country.” But Alexandria didn’t believe Yoho’s apology was sincere. “I will not teach my nieces and young people watching that this an apology, and what they should learn to accept,” she wrote. “Yoho is refusing responsibility.” she says.

Alexandria advocates for everybody’s rights. No matter the race, religion, social class, sexuality, gender, etc. Her actions are motivating for young girls like myself and the way she keeps on fighting for what she wants. Researching about Alexandria has taught me how much of a role model she is and how she deserves all the praise she receives.  She’s not one to shy down and she speaks up for herself. I really admire her character and how she conducts herself.

In conclusion, this amazing woman is an outstanding role model for many young girls and she’s a great influence. I hope reading about her made you feel inspired.