Nov. 7, 2018 / 4:43 AM GMT
By Nicole Acevedo
Heavy rains on Tuesday didn’t stop voters from showing up at the polls and assuring Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of her congressional victory. At 29, she will become the U.S.House’s youngest member of Congress.
“Rain is hard for turnout, sometimes people literally decide not to vote because is raining. Don’t do that,” said Ocasio-Cortez during Cosmopolitan’s Instagram-takeover on Election Day.
The newly-elected Congresswoman won on Tuesday night against her Republican opponent Anthony Pappas in New York’s 14th congressional district, which includes parts of Queens and The Bronx and it’s considered a safe Democratic district.
“As the Congresswoman for New York’s 14th district, my job would be to basically commute between The Bronx and Queens and Washington D.C. to really write and pass the laws that would really govern this land,” said Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday morning during a radio interview with the New York-based station HOT 97.
Ocasio-Cortez first made national headlines back in June when she won her district’s House primary against Democratic incumbent Joe Crowley with a proudly progressive platform to address issues surrounding immigration, healthcare, education.
“We’re really fighting for a working class agenda. We’re fighting for universal healthcare. We’re fighting for tuition free colleges and universities. A 100 percent renewable energy, this is what — not just what our district needs — but what the city needs and what the country needs,” Ocasio-Cortez told HOT 97.
The 28-year-old first-time candidate of Puerto Rican heritage represents a district that is 46 percent Latino, 24.6 percent white, 16.4 Asian, and 11 percent black.
Ocasio-Cortez told NBC News back in June that her experiences growing up in the district she now represents helped her connect with voters ahead of the midterm elections.
“I’m a working-class American, my mom cleaned homes and drove school buses to make sure we could make ends meet and I spent time during the financial crisis waiting tables, so I understand what it means to be a real, working-class person in America and that is so important to have that perspective in our leadership,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez is also member of the Democratic Socialists of America and helped Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., during his 2016 presidential bid.
“The definition of Democratic socialism to me, again, is the fact that in a modern, moral and wealthy society, no American should be too poor to live,” she said in a “Meet The Press” interview.
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