The story behind the making of 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's viral, inspirational campaign video

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The story behind the making of 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's viral, inspirational campaign video

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Ocasio-Cortez

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's campaign video was home-made and it went completely viral.

  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 28, won a shocking victory against a veteran congressman on Tuesday in New York's Democratic congressional primary election. 
  • Ocasio-Cortez is a Bronx native, a millennial, former organizer for Bernie Sanders, and Democratic socialist.
  • She was working as a bartender less than a year ago to help support her family.
  • The overnight political superstar was relatively unknown to many major media outlets and figures before her massive victory over Rep. Joe Crowley, who represented New York's 14th District since 1999 and had the potential to be the next House Speaker. 
  • Ocasio-Cortez released an inspirational campaign ad in May that's gone completely viral. The video had 300,000 views on its first day alone. 
  • Born to a Puerto Rican mother and a father from the South Bronx, Ocasio-Cortez ran a low-budget campaign, raising roughly $200,000 in small contributions and refusing to take donations from lobbyists. 
  • Her viral campaign ad was homemade. She wrote the script and had family and other volunteers help along the way. Parts of the video were also shot in her local bodega.
  • In a tweet describing the making of the video, Ocasio-Cortez said, "One great thing about our campaign video: not a single consultant was involved. I wrote the script. My family is the closing shot. That's my actual bodega...Volunteers coordinated the shoot."
  • The video tells her working class story and highlights her deep roots in New York City. 
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  • In the video she says, "Women like me aren't supposed to run for office. I wasn't born to a wealthy or powerful family."
  • The video also highlights the schism between establishment and progressive Democrats (Ocasio-Cortez is among the latter). "It's time we acknowledge that not all Democrats are the same," Ocasio-Cortez says in the video. 
  • Watch the full campaign video below.

 

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