Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

“There has almost never been a period of substantial economic growth in the United States without significant investment. And no investment pays off within the same cycle. No investment pays off within the same year - especially a governmental investment. Even businesses don't work that way.”

“We know enough to reject the stereotype that people in the Midwest do not care about their brothers and sisters.”

“Working-class Americans want a clear champion, and there is nothing radical about moral clarity in 2018.”

“I know what it's like to access the privilege of a ZIP Code but also be born in one that could have destined me to something else.”

“I'm an educator. I'm an organizer.”

“Mentors of mine were under a big pressure to minimize their femininity to make it. I'm not going to do that. That takes away my power. I'm not going to compromise who I am.”

“If you're differently-abled, if you're a person of color, if you express your identity in a way that's different from the norm, for whatever reason, there's an implicit bias where people, frankly, sometimes take you less seriously.”

“We absolutely do need to make sure that our borders are secure. But what we need to realize and remember is that ICE was established in 2003 right at the same time as the Patriot Act, the AUMF, the Iraq War - and we look back at a lot of that time and legislation as a mistake now. And I think that ICE is right there as a part of it.”

“Not all Democrats are the same.”

“I started my campaign out of a Trader Joe's bag with a bunch of printed palm cards and an idea.”

“What we need to do is lay out a plan and a vision that people can believe in. And getting into Twitter fights with the president is not exactly where we're going to find progress as a nation.”

“Capitalism has not always existed in the world and will not always exist in the world.”

“I was born in a place where your ZIP code determines your destiny.”

“The Republicans galvanize their base by inciting a lot of fear; they operate on a lot of mythmaking. So we have to have something compelling. We shouldn't be afraid to be bold.”

“It's not just that I'm a woman of color running for office. It's the way that I ran. It's the way that my identity formed my methods.”

“I don't think most of Congress understands how economics works.”

“What the Bronx and Queens needs is Medicare for all, tuition-free public college, a federal jobs guarantee, and criminal-justice reform.”

“Our democracy is designed to speak truth to power.”

“The idea that we're going to austerity ourselves into prosperity is so mistaken, and honestly, I feel like one of the big problems we have is that, because Democrats don't have a deep understanding of or degrees in economics, they allow Wall Street folks to roll in the door and think that they're giving them an education.”

“I do think that sometimes, especially coming into this going straight from activism to being a candidate or to being a person who potentially, you know, looks like will be holding political office soon, I think we expect our politicians to be perfect and fully formed and on point on every single issue.”