Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the fresh new democratic faces is taking Congress and social media by storm. With her witty twitter posts, and snarky, intelligent comments she seems to be gaining popularity by the day. In the first two months of getting her seat in office, she’s had the uncanny ability for a freshman member of Congress to push Democrats farther to the left then they’re used to, and forces potential 2020 candidates to grapple issues they normally would’ve avoided.

   To get to where she was today she had to defeat long-standing Democratic Congressman Joseph Crowley, who was seen to be a possible replacement for Nancy Pelosi. This was seen as the biggest primary shake-up for the Democrats and shocked the political world in 2018.  Because of this win, she has rejected the idea that “the general notion of, ‘Oh, you’re here and need to be quiet and keep your head down.’ “For me, especially as a member who won her seat via a primary election against another Democrat, my constituency was telling me the exact opposite thing,” she said in an interview. In the days after her primary victory, Kristen Gillibrand, a candidate for 2020 came out and supported her in her call to abolish ICE, and other Democrats rallied around her, and as a result, many people see her as the face of the Democratic party.

   Recently she drafted the Green New Deal which is advertised as a big, bold transformation of the economy to tackle the twin crises of inequality and climate change. Republican leaders like President Trump and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell have used this deal to show Americans how Democrats are pushing the “socialist agenda”, while Democrats have praised the deal as a large step for climate change reform. Recently she recognized in an interview that the deal might be a “radical” and “unachievable” but said, “I don’t see anyone doing anything better”. The Green New Deal is about putting a lot of people to work in developing new technologies, building new infrastructure, and getting us to 100% renewable energy.”

   She’s also an active Twitter user, using the app as a way to resonate with her voters. Recently Ivanka Trump went after Ocasio-Cortez’s policies in the Green New Deal in a Fox News interview: “People want to work for what they get. So, I think that this idea of a guaranteed minimum is not something most people want.” Ocasio-Cortez replied on Twitter saying, “As a person who actually worked for tips & hourly wages in my life, instead of having to learn about it 2nd-hand, I can tell you that most people want to be paid enough to live, “A living wage isn’t a gift, it’s a right. Workers are often paid far less than the value they create.” Ivanka later replied saying that she supports the minimum wage, but doesn’t support paying people who are unwilling to work, but Cortex was quick to defend he deal saying that nowhere in the deal did it support paying people that weren’t working. 

   Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez seems like the fresh new face of change that some would argue, this country needs. She hasn’t been afraid to call out politicians in all levels of government on things she believes in and has been praised by politicians all across America. But whether you like or not it looks like she will make a large impact on our country and how it will be run in the future.