What is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's net worth and salary?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is an American politician and educator with a net worth of $200 thousand. Also known as "AOC," Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rose to prominence after winning the Democratic primary for New York's 14th congressional district in 2018. She went on to win the general election, becoming the youngest woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress.
Before entering politics, Ocasio-Cortez worked as a bartender and waitress to help support her family after her father's death. She graduated from Boston University with a degree in economics and international relations.
As a member of Congress, Ocasio-Cortez has been a vocal advocate for progressive policies such as the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, and free public college education. She has served on several congressional committees, including the Committee on Financial Services and the Committee on Oversight and Reform. Known for her strong social media presence and willingness to challenge the Democratic Party establishment, Ocasio-Cortez has become a prominent figure in the progressive movement. She has faced both praise and criticism for her outspoken views and her ability to engage younger voters.
Salary
AOC's annual Congressional salary is $174,000.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Wealth Disclosures
An April 2018 disclosure filed by Alexandria showed that she had between $1,000 and $15,000 in savings, between $15,000 and $50,000 in checking, and $50,000 worth of student loan debt. The same disclosure showed that in 2017, she earned $26,581 working at a coffee shop/taqueria. She had no blind trusts for undisclosed assets. She earned $6,000 from her campaign as a salary. In her first year as a Congresswoman, Alexandra earned $174,000. She also receives a $3,000 annual living expense credit, health/insurance, and retirement benefits.
The Center for Responsive Politics ranked her as one of the least wealthy members of the 116th Congress.
(Photo by Lars Niki/Getty Images for The Athena Film Festival)
Early Life and Career
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born in New York City, New York, on October 13, 1989.
She is the daughter of Blanca Ocasio-Cortez and Sergio Ocasio-Cortez and has a younger brother named Gabriel. Her father, who died in 2012, was a small business owner, and her mother cleaned homes.
When she was five, the family moved to the suburban neighborhood of Yorktown Heights. She attended Yorktown High School, where she was a very intelligent student. She came second in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair microbiology category in 2007.
Her parents sold their family home in Yorktown, NY, for $355,000 in 2016.
After finishing high school, she enrolled at Boston University. While she was a student, she served as an intern for U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy and also helped her family deal with a lengthy probate battle to settle her father's estate following his death during her second year of college. She has said both experiences had a large impact on her. In 2011, Ocasio-Cortez graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations and economics.
After college, Ocasio-Cortez started a job as a bartender and waitress in order to help her mother from getting her house foreclosed on. She then launched Brook Avenue Press, a publishing firm that portrayed the Bronx in a positive light, and she also worked for the nonprofit National Hispanic Institute.
In 2016, Ocasio-Cortez worked as an organizer for Bernie Sander's presidential campaign. She then traveled across the United States, visiting places like Flint, Michigan, and the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota, to speak to the residents affected by the water crisis and the Dakota Access Pipeline. She was inspired by the activists working in these locations, and it was at this point she realized politics was more accessible than she had thought. Soon after, she got a phone call from Brand New Congress, an organization that was recruiting progressive candidates.
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Political Career
In April 2017, Ocasio-Cortez began her campaign while also working at a taqueria in Union Square, New York City. She was the first person since 2004 to challenge Joe Crowley, the Democratic Caucus Chair, in the primary race. Because she was grossly underfinanced compared to Crowley, she had to rely on a solid grassroots mobilization campaign and decided not to take donations from corporations. Crowley did not participate in the race's scheduled debate; the two only met face-to-face once during the entire race. Ocasio-Cortez benefited from several endorsements from organizations like MoveOn and Democracy for America, while most notable political figures endorsed Crowley.
Ocasio-Cortez earned over 57% of the vote during the primary election. "Time" called it the biggest upset of the 2018 election, with other news outlets making similar statements. She was outspent by a margin of 18 to 1. She then went on to face the Republican nominee, Anthony Pappas, in the November 6 general election. Pappas did not actively campaign, and Ocasio-Cortez was widely endorsed by progressive organizations such as former President Barack Obama and Senator Bernie Sanders. She won 78% of the vote and became part of the broader Democratic victory in the 2018 midterm elections, allowing the Democrats to gain control of the House of Representatives.
Her win garnered a large amount of media attention. At age 29, she became the youngest woman to ever serve in the United States Congress and the youngest member of the 116th Congress. She continued to receive high attention throughout her first years in office, even on par with that of the 2020 presidential candidates. She is part of an informal group of progressive members of Congress called "The Squad," which also includes Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, and Jamaal Bowman. The group represents some of the youngest and most progressive members of Congress.
In 2022, Ocasio-Cortez was unopposed in the Democratic primary and defeated Republican Tina Forte and Conservative Party nominee Desi Cuellar in the general election.
Regarding her political positions, Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. She supports various progressive policies like single-payer Medicare for All, tuition-free public college and trade school, canceling outstanding student debt, guaranteed family leave, abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, privatized prisons, and more strict gun control policies. She has also been vocal about much more progressive environmental reforms. She has described climate change as a massive security threat to the United States and worldwide civilization in general. Her environmental plan, called the Green New Deal, advocates for a transition to an electrical grid that runs on 100% renewable energy and calls for the end of the use of fossil fuels. She also has proposed various new tax plans that would impose greater taxes on the wealthy in order to help fund the Green New Deal. Additionally, she has been vocal about granting citizens of Puerto Rico further civil rights, including voting rights and disaster relief.
Personal Life
Ocasio-Cortez is Roman Catholic. While running for office in 2018, she resided in the Bronx with her partner, Riley Roberts, who works as a web developer. The couple got engaged in April of 2022 in Puerto Rico. She reported that following the 2021 United States Capital attack, she has been in psychotherapy to cope with the aftermath.
