VoterLens
Boston University College of Arts & Sciences—Bachelor of Arts in international relations and economics
Data last updated 10/27/2026
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born in The Bronx in 1989 and graduated from Boston University College of Arts & Sciences in 2011. Before running for Congress, she worked as an educational director with the National Hispanic Institute, founded Brook Avenue Press, worked as a waitress and bartender, and volunteered as an organizer for Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign. She was first elected to Congress in 2018 after defeating incumbent Rep. Joseph Crowley in the Democratic primary and winning the general election for New York's 14th Congressional District.
Committee Assignments: Committee on Energy and Commerce · Health · Oversight and Investigations · Energy
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez supports universal, single-payer health care through Medicare for All, while also backing narrower measures to expand coverage, protect reproductive health access, improve public-health infrastructure, and scrutinize Medicare Advantage practices.
Specific Actions & Proposals
Ocasio-Cortez proposed legislation categorized as health policy to address transparency in Medicare Advantage steering practices.
SourceOcasio-Cortez proposed legislation categorized as health policy to reauthorize the Healthy Start program.
SourceOcasio-Cortez co-sponsored legislation to amend the Social Security Act to lower Medicare eligibility to age 50.
SourceOcasio-Cortez co-sponsored health legislation related to making reproductive health care more affordable and accessible.
SourceOcasio-Cortez publicly supports Medicare for All, describing it as a single-payer system that guarantees health care regardless of income or employment while eliminating copays and premiums.
SourceAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Economy & Jobs stance emphasizes a worker-centered economy: living wages, stronger labor protections and collective bargaining, public job creation, and limits on corporate and financial-sector practices that raise costs for households. Her record includes sponsoring proposals for green public employment, stronger wage protections for care workers, consumer credit relief, and co-sponsoring measures targeting private-equity abuses and worker-focused trade policy.
Specific Actions & Proposals
Ocasio-Cortez proposed creating a climate-focused jobs corps aimed at public employment, climate resilience, and economic opportunity.
SourceOcasio-Cortez proposed extending stronger minimum wage and overtime protections to home care workers, a low-wage workforce often excluded from full labor protections.
SourceOcasio-Cortez proposed capping credit card interest rates at 10 percent to reduce consumer debt burdens and restrain financial-sector charges on households.
SourceOcasio-Cortez co-sponsored legislation aimed at regulating private equity practices and limiting financial extraction that can harm workers, consumers, and businesses.
SourceOcasio-Cortez co-sponsored a resolution calling for trade policy that prioritizes workers, consumers, independent farmers, small businesses, and environmental protections.
SourceAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez supports a broad pro-immigrant agenda centered on a pathway to citizenship for undocumented people, including DREAMers, ending or sharply limiting punitive immigration enforcement, abolishing ICE, and replacing detention-heavy policies with humane alternatives. Her record includes sponsoring legislation for immigrant 9/11 workers and co-sponsoring immigrant-family health coverage legislation, while her public platform calls for bold immigration reform and dignity for immigrants.
Specific Actions & Proposals
Ocasio-Cortez sponsored legislation to provide a pathway to citizenship for immigrant first responders, workers, and volunteers who assisted with cleanup and search-and-rescue efforts at Ground Zero after September 11.
SourceOcasio-Cortez co-sponsored legislation aimed at improving immigrant families' access to health coverage and care.
SourceHer official House immigration page says it is time for a path to citizenship for all undocumented people in the United States, including DREAMers, and frames immigration policy around humanity and dignity.
SourceHer campaign issues page says undocumented individuals should be made full members of the country they call home and that ICE should be abolished.
SourceHer campaign petition supports the Roadmap to Freedom principles, including a pathway to citizenship for 11 million people, ending inhumane family detention, investing in community-based alternatives to detention, demilitarizing the border, and increasing protections for immigrant workers.
SourceAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez supports aggressive federal climate action centered on the Green New Deal, renewable and clean-energy transition, environmental justice, and job creation. Her record includes sponsoring climate-related proposals on a Civilian Climate Corps, geothermal permitting capacity, green public housing, and limits on energy-intensive AI data centers, while her campaign frames climate policy as both an emissions and equity issue.
Specific Actions & Proposals
Ocasio-Cortez proposed creating a Civilian Climate Corps focused on climate resilience, clean-energy work, and justice-oriented job creation.
SourceOcasio-Cortez proposed legislation to invest in public housing upgrades tied to energy efficiency, decarbonization, and green jobs.
SourceOcasio-Cortez proposed an energy bill related to geothermal cost-recovery authority, indicating support for federal action to expand geothermal energy capacity.
SourceOcasio-Cortez proposed a moratorium bill addressing AI data centers, a climate and energy-adjacent issue because of their electricity demand and infrastructure impacts.
SourceOcasio-Cortez supports a Green New Deal framework to fight climate change by transitioning to renewable and clean energy while creating jobs and prioritizing frontline communities.
SourceAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez supports broad federal investment in public education, including affordable high-quality education from pre-K through postsecondary education, full funding for programs such as Head Start and TRIO, tuition-free public universities, and cancellation of student debt. Her education agenda also includes climate-resilient public school infrastructure, universal school meals, LGBTQIA+ student protections, and ending the school-to-prison pipeline.
Specific Actions & Proposals
Ocasio-Cortez co-sponsored legislation categorized under Education that would invest in public school infrastructure and align school modernization with climate and equity goals.
SourceOcasio-Cortez co-sponsored legislation to support universal school meals, linking child nutrition with students' ability to learn in school.
SourceHer official House education page says she believes everyone has a right to affordable, high-quality education starting at pre-K and extending through postsecondary education, with federal support for K-12 schools and public colleges.
SourceHer official House education page says she supports eliminating tuition and fees at public universities and forgiving all outstanding federal and private student loans.
SourceHer campaign platform says she supports ending the school-to-prison pipeline, decriminalizing truancy, taking police out of schools, and investing instead in education, healthcare, housing, and supportive services.
SourceAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez frames public safety as prevention-oriented, emphasizing investment in housing, education, health care, mental health crisis response, and community-based violence interruption over expanded policing and incarceration. Her record also includes sponsoring legislation aimed at AI-enabled surveillance and non-consensual deepfake abuse, while her campaign platform supports police accountability measures and limits on militarized policing.
Specific Actions & Proposals
Ocasio-Cortez proposed legislation to restrict AI-powered surveillance camera networks that track people across communities, aligning public safety with privacy and civil liberties protections.
SourceOcasio-Cortez proposed legislation to give victims of non-consensual sexually explicit deepfake imagery a civil right of action against those who create or distribute such material.
SourceOcasio-Cortez proposed an earlier version of the DEFIANCE Act to combat non-consensual sexually explicit deepfake media and provide legal recourse for victims.
SourceOcasio-Cortez supports shifting public safety strategy toward investments in education, housing, jobs, health care, victim support, re-entry programs, and community-based crisis response.
SourceOcasio-Cortez supports ending qualified immunity, removing police from schools, ending transfers of military equipment to police departments, banning tear gas and rubber bullets, and ending broken-windows policing.
SourceBallotpedia
https://ballotpedia.org/Alexandria_Ocasio-CortezFetched: biography, education, professional background, committee assignments
FEC API
https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/candidate/H8NY15148/totals/Fetched: totalRaised, totalSpent, cashOnHand
OpenWatchdog
https://www.openwatchdog.com/member/O000172Fetched: partyAlignment, missedVotes, keyVotes
OpenSecrets
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/alexandria-ocasio-cortez/summary?cid=N00041162Fetched: campaignFinance
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress Endorsements
https://www.ocasiocortez.com/endorsementsFetched: endorsements
iVoterGuide Candidate Profile
https://ivoterguide.com/candidate/44193/race/2162/election/1230Fetched: endorsements
AFL-CIO Legislative Scorecard
https://aflcio.org/scorecard/legislators/alexandria-ocasio-cortez?page=1Fetched: ratings
League of Conservation Voters 2025 National Environmental Scorecard
https://www.lcv.org/2025-scorecard-reportFetched: ratings
Heritage Action Scorecard 118
https://heritageaction.com/scorecard/members/O000172/118Fetched: ratings
Club for Growth Foundation Federal 2023 House Scorecard
https://www.clubforgrowth.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/cfgf-us-2023-house-scorecard.pdfFetched: ratings
Institute for Legislative Analysis
https://scorecard.limitedgov.org/lawmakers/O000172Fetched: ratings
Human Rights Campaign 118th Congressional Scorecard
https://hrc-prod-requests.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/files/documents/118th-Congressional-Scorecard-HRC-2024-Final.pdfFetched: ratings
SBA Pro-Life America Scorecard
https://sbaprolife.org/representative/alexandria-ocasio-cortezFetched: ratings
Representative Ocasio-Cortez official House website
https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/legislation/healthcareFetched: issuePositions
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaign issues page
https://www.ocasiocortez.com/issuesFetched: issuePositions
Representative Ocasio-Cortez
https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/legislation/economyFetched: issuePositions
Representative Ocasio-Cortez official House immigration page
https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/legislation/immigrationFetched: issuePositions
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress issues page
https://www.ocasiocortez.com/issuesFetched: issuePositions
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress Roadmap to Freedom petition
https://act.ocasiocortez.com/sign/roadmap-to-freedom/Fetched: issuePositions
Representative Ocasio-Cortez
https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/legislation/climateFetched: issuePositions
Representative Ocasio-Cortez official House education page
https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/legislation/educationFetched: issuePositions
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress
https://act.ocasiocortez.com/survey/ctc-questionnaire/Fetched: issuePositions
Representative Ocasio-Cortez
https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/legislation/public-safetyFetched: issuePositions