Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Responds to Call to Run for President: 'How About...No'

Senior Editor

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shut down a call for her to run for president in 2020, asking for people to talk instead about the issues facing America.

Writing in Vox, the journalist Matthew Yglesias laid out his case for the representative-elect to run for president despite her ineligibility under the U.S. Constitution.

Only people over the age of 35 are allowed to run. At 29, Ocasio-Cortez will be the youngest woman to ever enter Congress when she takes office in January to represent New York's 14th district, which includes parts of Queens and the Bronx, from which she hails.

Yglesias wrote that Ocasio-Cortez "constantly dominates the conversation" and is "an outside politician in the best possible sense—quietly loathed by many of her colleagues for beating a well-liked incumbent and being, frankly, more impressive than they are—but still well-liked by normal rank-and-file Democrats.

"Having spent more time as a bartender than a politician, she has an appealing everywoman persona, and a Latina from the Bronx is the reminder mainstream politics needs that there's more to working-class life in America than old guys in Appalachian diners."

But, responding on Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez knocked the suggestion back.

"How about... no," she wrote. "Sometimes political media is too fixated on personalities instead of policies. The whole country JUST went through an exhausting midterm election. We need a break.

"Can we instead talk about healthcare, a living wage, legalizing cannabis, GND [Green New Deal], & other issues?"

Ocasio-Cortez caused a major political upset when her grassroots campaign defeated 10-term Representative Joe Crowley, who had been touted as a potential House speaker, in a Democratic primary.

She won her district comfortably on November 6 in the midterm elections. But the Bronx-born 29-year-old has described experiencing racism and sexism in her first days on the Hill.

The elected representative was even directed to a spouse event for partners of those elected by a Democratic official.

Ocasio-Cortez also said she could not afford an apartment in Washington, D.C., until her congressional salary kicked in, and had to rely on savings to get by in the meantime.

"There are many little ways in which our electoral system isn't even designed (nor prepared) for working-class people to lead," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

She has also been busy hiring staff, pledging to pay her interns $15 an hour, which is higher than many Congressmembers pay.