“I AM RUNNING FROM THE BOTTOM”

I did not come to play with you . . .

I came to slay.

—Beyoncé, “Formation”

After his 2016 loss, a few Bernie Sanders staffers started the organization Brand New Congress (BNC) with the aim of recruiting candidates who were not your typical politicians, aka old white men—like Bernie, ha! But to AOC and BNC, the soul of Bernie’s movement represented the change that needed to take place. First of all, Bernie’s from Brooklyn and has the accent to prove it—he’s down with the revolution, calls himself an independent, and does not necessarily feel the need or pressure to lace himself up with others in the old guard—he’s about everything that makes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s heart sing. He’s not afraid to stand his ground about Medicare for All—and whoeva’s mad about it should just feel the Bern, baby. He’s got a helluva millennial army behind him (come on, he had Public Enemy at his 2020 campaign and sported the Flavor Flav clock—major swag!), and one of those young members following him in 2016 was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

She’d stuff envelopes, knock on doors throughout New York, and do whatever she could to fight along with Sanders for what his camp described as “a Future to Believe In.” Unfortunately, when he didn’t win the primary, it was a sad day. A time that left a deep ache and hunger for the hope that the Bern had bestowed, which, unbeknownst to AOC, that same achy need for change would lead right back to her. According to the members of Brand New Congress, and the influence of Bernie’s progressive ideas, the movement he started needed to be continued . . . and all throughout the federal government, not just in the White House.

The goal was to create a new wave, a blue shift, of progressive politics in Congress, helmed by unapologetic members, who had lived out some of the hot-button issues the progressive movement advocated for. The new Congress would look like politicians who had real stories of their own, those who had experienced the trials of having no health insurance or who had come from working-class families. Since destiny wasn’t bringing in any qualified recipients herself, Brand New Congress sent out a call to action. They started, naturally, with young people who had volunteered on Bernie’s 2016 presidential campaign—people like Alexandria.

They used a Bernie Sanders template to organize a campaign—their candidates would refuse to accept financial backing from big corporations so there would be no obligation to return the favor in office. Nope, there would be no more rule following. Playground politics and practices, where the business bullies wielded their financial power to reign, were over, sis. The change would be so deep that it would present like politics unlike it had ever been seen before—brown, black, and female. It was time to change the face of politics, and that new face would look like the real America. Real people were those who’d gone to work every day, who sometimes struggled with their finances, and maybe even a few who knew how to twerk to Cardi B. People who had lived experiences that would command better legislation for everyday people, and not just the money boys who were looking down from above the glass ceiling.

It would be a new paradigm where the government now would be modeled after its constituents. The unwealthy and unconnected would run the House and the Senate and be allies for the working and middle class. It would demonstrate what progressive really looked like, and make history. This was the dream going in, and it was beginning to come true.

They wanted new candidates in all the Democratic seats. Barack Obama had already been held back by the white male patriarchy that had pinned him up against a wall. The Brand New Congress were planning ahead for the next election, to put more incumbents on the other side of that wall, align the soldiers to be ready to go out. As millennials, their generation had not been alive for World War I, World War II, Vietnam, or much of the Cold War, but they had seen a hellfire occur in the White House that would only get worse. Obama managed to accomplish a lot and take healthcare to the next level, but the GOP tied his hands and refused to work with him, and then put a bully in the White House after him.

It was Saikat Chakrabarti, who would become Alexandria’s first chief of staff, and Corbin Trent, her communications director, who began soliciting names for those working-class people who would take a chance and run against the top dogs. The organization announced their initiative on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show and received more than eleven thousand applicants.

One letter came from Gabriel Ocasio-Cortez, Alexandria’s little brother. He asked his sister if she wanted to do it, and she said yes. Sometimes we have only a small lens or limited scope into our own greatness, whereas our family, friends, and colleagues can see it clearer than we do.

Remember, Alexandria had been at Standing Rock and was already fired up with inspiration. “I saw how a corporation had literally militarized itself against the American people.”

Then she got the call. “Will you run for Congress in New York’s Fourteenth District?” was the question asked. Brand New Congress wanted to meet with her.

Alexandria may not have even thought to nominate herself. Had she thought about it? Maybe. But it just hadn’t seemed like a realistic idea for her, which is why many people don’t go for it. (Go for it!) “I felt like the only way to effectively run for office is if you had access to a lot of wealth, high social influence, a lot of high dynastic power, and I knew that I didn’t have any of those things. I counted out that possibility because I felt that possibility had counted out me,” she told The Cut. But her brother didn’t count her out. He was twenty-six now and had heard his sister speak formally, debating since high school, and he saw her passion for politics at kitchen-table discussions throughout their childhood. Her dedication to advocate for an idea was admirable, when she set out with her spiral notebook and pen, the power of her delivery in any matter would be effective. He knew exactly who his big sister could be.

Alexandra Rojas, a former member of the Brand New Congress would tell Time, “We looked at the brother telling the story of a sister who wasn’t a giant nonprofit executive, she didn’t go work on the Hill for 10 years . . . She was someone who watched her family struggle through the financial crisis.”

Her first call from the Brand New Congress was informational. They wanted to know her story, hmmm. Not just her time in Yorktown, where her family had moved when she was small, but her life growing up in the Bronx before that. They also wanted to hear more about her role in campaigns for Ted Kennedy, for whom she’d interned, and Bernie Sanders. That call would be followed by more intense preparation calls. It was a necessity; she needed to be groomed to take on a candidate like the incumbent, Rep. Joseph Crowley, who was one of the highest-ranking Democrats in the House of Representatives. There would be weeks and weeks of calls, video chats, and team meetings. Every step had to be purposeful. She had to be ready.

They teamed with another group, Justice Democrats, for media training. She was trained on how to conduct herself with the media and coached on policy. Her debate tactics, which had been put to much different use back in high school, needed to be strengthened and honed. Living-room speeches were rehearsed over and over again. She was well spoken, but she had to be polished.

Quickly this preparation became her life.

Over the course of the entire year, after bartending for long hours at Flats Fix, Alexandria and her team of volunteers would visit 120,000 homes campaigning. After a full day of taking orders, running credit cards, dodging shade, and throwing high fives to customers, Alexandria would throw on her black blazer like a reverse Clark Kent and turn into Superwoman, zipping through the streets of New York, hopping on the 7 train and the Q and then the bus to campaign in her district. Unlike other politicians who learn about their constituents from their data, AOC spent many months and years working and walking among them, honey.

They’d make 170,000 phone calls and send 120,000 text messages in total. They joined forces with local organizations and chapters of Black Lives Matter, the Bronx Progressives, the Jackson Heights Beautification Group, the 7 Train Coalition, and Queens Neighborhoods United. One of the key organizations was the Democratic Socialists of America, who endorsed her in April 2018.

Things wouldn’t be done the old way; there would be a new way, and this group, along with Alexandria, decided to figure out how. She would not only work in politics, she would be incomparable. There would be no substitute.

At twenty-seven, she’d be the symbol of unstoppable progress.

Her campaign outlined their biggest objectives: a universal jobs guarantee, the abolishment of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), and tuition-free public college.

Too many Americans were living paycheck to paycheck, and this political newbie would be someone in the House who would give them a loud and unapologetic voice. AOC’s creed was: “no person should be too poor to live.”

In February 2018, Alexandria quit her job at Flats Fix. Chakrabarti moved back to New York full-time from Knoxville, Tennessee, to co-chair the campaign, and sleeping on his couch would be Corbin, who left behind his family and food-truck business in Tennessee for their vision.