Former Democratic New York Rep. Joe Crowley offered a bit of advice to new members of Congress during an exit interview with Vice News. “Don’t come here thinking you’re going to change the world overnight,” he said.
It was perhaps advice for the woman taking his spot, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who defeated Crowley last summerin a upset primary victory and who’s rocketed to the top of her class as the most high-profile freshman on Capitol Hill.
In her first month in office, Ocasio-Cortez — or AOC as she’s short-handed commonly in the press — has remained a news cycle fixture for her clapbacks, policy proposals and more than 350 tweets or retweets since January 3.
Here’s how she’s spent her first month in Congress.
- Sworn in on at the age of 29 on January 3, becomes the youngest member of the 116th Congress.
- Surpassed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Twitter followers (@aoc vs. @SpeakerPelosi) her second day in office.
- Posted her most retweeted tweeton January 4, a video of her dancing in front of her office, to poke fun at the video of her dancing in college that surfaced and was mocked following her swearing in. The new Twitter video received more than 20.7 million views and more than 160,000 retweets.
- Co-sponsored her first piece of legislation, H.R. 242, repealing the PAYGO Act on January 4.
- Her proposal to raise taxes on the rich to pay for the so-called “Green New Deal” proposal ended up on the cover of the January 5 issue of New York Daily News with the headline “Radical Solution.”
- She got a shoutout from Cher on Twitter.
- Sat for an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes”that aired January 6 in which she said the super rich should be taxed more heavily after making $10 million, and that there’s “no question” Trump is racist.
- Search interest in “Green New Deal” reached its highest ever point on Google Trends the day after her “60 Minutes” interview.
- Said Trump saying “Who cares?” when asked about her calling him racist proves she got under his skin, in a January 14 tweet.
- Got in an argument with former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker over taxes on Twitter on January 15.
- Named to the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees things like banking and lending, which she announced on January 15. It’s led by Chairwoman Maxine Waters of California.
- Gave her first speech from the House floor on January 16, where she spoke about a constituent who missed a paycheck from the shutdown, and said the shutdown isn’t about a wall or the border, but “the erosion of American democracy and the subversion of our most basic governmental norms.”
- Her speech became C-SPAN’s most-viewed Twitter video ever, with more than 3.34 million views.
- She and other freshmen Democrats delivered a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on January 16 calling for an end to the shutdown a start a #WheresMitch social media campaign.
- She and Democratic Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut taught a class to fellow lawmakers on how to use social mediaon January 17 where she counseled them to not use memes if they don’t know what memes are, and not to talk like the Founding Fathers on Twitter.
- Spoke at a Women’s March event in New York City on January 19.
- Spoke at the MLK Now event in New York City on January 21 where Ta-Nehisi Coates said he thinks she is the person in politics today who represents King’s radical vision.
- Named to the House Oversight Committee, which can investigate the Trump administration, on January 22.
- The Washington Post Fact Checker gave some of her claims about living and minimum wage at the King eventthree Pinnochios on January 24. Ocasio-Cortez responded on Twitter criticizing the fact check’s citation of“a Walmart-funded think tank as reference material for wage fairness” and responded with her own “4 Geppettos.” (Click here for CNN’s fact-check of AOC and several other politicians’ commentson climate change)
- When asked by Stephen Colbert on the January 21 episode of “The Late Show” how many “f****” she gives about Democrats who’ve criticized her, she said, “zero.”
- Shared her skincare routine on Instagram Stories on January 28 after being asked about it from a follower.
- Co-wrote a letter along with other freshmen Democratsasking for a reduction in Department of Homeland Security funding because of spending on things including detention facilities.
