Who Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
Who Is?
iHeartRadio + NowThis
4.1 • 803 Ratings
🗓️ 14 July 2020
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 2018, after defeating a powerful corporate Democrat in one of the biggest political upsets in American history, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the most prominent progressive in the United States. In office, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez has proposed visionary policy, like the Green New Deal, and become famous for her willingness to challenge the status quo directly--a formidable poise she developed over more than a decade of experience in grassroots organizing. Ocasio-Cortez, who will turn 31 in October, is a politician with a long career ahead of her. As she cruises toward a second term, more than anything else, she has proven that it is possible to fight back against the moneyed political establishment and win. On the first episode of the second season of “Who Is?,” join Sean Morrow, host of “Who Is?,” as he talks with the journalist who first covered AOC’s longshot primary challenge, the volunteers who were with her from the start, and the activists fighting on the ground to propel the progressive movement forward.
- Naureen Akhter, Deputy District Director for Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
- Aida Chavez, who covers Congress and politics at The Intercept
- Shaniyat Chowdhury, an activist and insurgent candidate who challenged Representative Gregory Meeks in New York’s 5th congressional district
- Bianca Cunningham, a former co-chair of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and a co-founder of the DSA AfroSocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | One of the important things as well is that I run without any corporate pack money, so I don't take a dime from luxury developers. |
| 0:07.5 | I don't take a dime from pharmaceutical corporations. |
| 0:10.5 | We are a people-led movement because we are here to advocate for families, for health care, for every American, for love and acceptance of every American, because that is what this country is about. |
| 0:23.0 | When Alexandria Casio-Cortez, now the youngest woman ever elected to Congress and one of its |
| 0:28.9 | most recognizable figures, made that speech, she was still a long-shot candidate. |
| 0:34.8 | Primary challenging one of the most powerful Democrats in the House, |
| 0:38.7 | a dedicated corporate fundraiser who'd held the seat for almost two decades. |
| 0:44.3 | And she wasn't even on the ballot yet. |
| 0:48.8 | I'm Sean Morrow, and this is Who Is, the podcast from Now This, where we examine power by looking at the stories of people who have it. |
| 0:58.5 | In our last season, I told you some pretty grim stories about a man who used an auto parts empire inheritance to start a private military. |
| 1:08.0 | A TV producer more powerful than any senator, a forward and prince who had |
| 1:13.1 | a Washington Post journalist dismembered. Stephen Miller. But one story from our first episode |
| 1:20.6 | about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell showed us something that would pop up in literally |
| 1:25.9 | every other episode. It's a lesson from a political |
| 1:30.0 | science class McConnell briefly taught in the 1970s. Here's John Chiefs of Lexington, Kentucky's |
| 1:37.3 | Harold Leader. I got this one of his students at the time. He went into the first day of class, |
| 1:45.5 | walked up to the chalkboard, |
| 1:50.2 | to these political science students, and said, I'm going to teach you the three things you need to succeed in politics and to build a political party. These are the three things you need, |
| 1:55.3 | and he scribbled on the chalkboard and stepped away, and the three things were money, money, |
| 2:00.5 | and money. Money and its three things were money, money, and money. |
| 2:01.6 | Money and its power over our political system showed up everywhere. |
| 2:06.6 | It's how Speaker Nancy Pelosi built power before she'd run for Congress, |
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