FROM COCKTAIL WAITRESS TO CONGRESS IN JUST TEN MONTHS
TEN months ago, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was serving cocktails in a taco bar in the heart of Manhattan.
In the early hours of yesterday morning, aged just 29, she made history by becoming the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.
And despite standing in Queens and the Bronx, with a largely immigrant population, the Democrat was also the first ethnic minority candidate to win the seat.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s remarkable rise is a tale which has seen her dubbed the ‘next Obama’ by some commentators.
Born in the Bronx, she lives in the onebedroom apartment where she spent the first few years of her life, and now shares it with her web developer boyfriend.
When her architect father died of lung cancer aged 48, she was in her second year at Boston University.
She took just a week off and later graduated with a degree in international relations and economics.
When it came to her political campaign, she refused any corporate sponsorship. To plug into a younger generation, she shared scores of Instagram posts and videos and has been interviewed by Vogue magazine.
Earlier this year, she told a rally: ‘If it looks like I’m tired, I am. If it looks like I have no make-up on, I don’t. If this is the fifth time you’ve seen me in this dress, deal with it.’
Yesterday, a grinning Ms Ocasio-Cortez took to the stage and told supporters: ‘We have made history tonight…today is a milestone, but it is really a beginning.’
Her old cocktails job at Flats Fix, a Mexican restaurant in Union Square, has certainly equipped her to meet tall orders.
And her main pledges include universal healthcare, tuition-free college education and criminal justice reform.
Congress also saw the first Native American women, Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland, and Muslim women, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, join its ranks.
Democrat Jared Polis also became the first openly gay candidate to be elected governor. He won in Colorado.