U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, was a 29-year-old bartender when she was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2018. This was two years after she volunteered for the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont with close ties to the Democratic Party.
In her six years in office, AOC, as she is also known, has made a name for herself as one of the most visible progressive reformers in Congress, advocating for economic justice, education, health care access for all and curbing climate change, among other policy issues. She has also been one of the sharpest critics of U.S. President Donald Trump and his supporters, including Tesla owner and CEO Elon Musk, who has led the new U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, and Republicans in Congress.
In the spring of 2025, after Trump took office for the second time, Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders traveled and held rallies across the U.S. in what they called the "Fighting the Oligarchy Tour." On April 12, 2025, during a rally in Los Angeles, California, at which singer-songwriters Joan Baez and Neil Young performed, Ocasio-Cortez said to the crowd:
Her positions, paired with her shrewd use of social media — including live videos on Instagram, answering direct questions from her followers, and quips on X and Bluesky — have fueled speculation that she may run for president in 2028, following in Sanders' footsteps. All of this has turned her into one of the political right's favorite targets. Several rumors have circulated about her, many false and some relaying distorted truths. Here, Snopes compiled 13 of them, which we have verified as the congresswoman grew more prominent in U.S. politics.
