On Tuesday night, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest congresswoman in history at 29-years-old, but even that amazing achieving does not exempt her from typical millennial problems like trying to afford an apartment in a super-expensive city like Washington DC. And with median rent in Washington D.C. coming in at $2,700, it’s no wonder that she’s having some difficulty finding a place to live.
Unlike other politicians, Ocasio-Cortez comes from a fairly modest background. At the beginning of her campaign to represent New York’s 14th Congressional District, Ocasio-Cortez was still working at a bar. As MSNBC reports, Ocasio-Cortez used the bar to help her political side-hustle, storing important campaign materials like political literature and a change of clothes behind the bar so she could canvass after her shifts.
However, she has used this personal dilemma (which is all too familiar to other young people in the U.S.) to spark a larger conversation about how issues like housing affordability affect many other Americans. Recently, Cortez tweeted that her housing predicament was an example of “many little ways in which our electoral system isn’t even designed (nor prepared) for working-class people to lead.”
Unfortunately, Ocasio-Cortez also faced some backlash regarding her financial predicament when, according to The Hill, Fox News hosts mocked her for her finances, calling her “a little, simple person” and using the extravagance of the outfits she wore at photoshoots to prove her hypocrisy. In response, Ocasio-Cortez clapped back, tweeting “it’s been very revealing to see how gleefully Fox News hosts crack jokes about working-class people.”
While finances might be a little tough at the moment, Ocasio-Cortez is going to be just fine. Townhall reports that Ocasio-Cortez has prepped for the months before she takes office and starts receiving her $174,000 yearly salary as a congresswoman.
Thank you all for the overwhelming outpour of support! As I mentioned, we’ve been preparing and will be fine.
However, it’s been very revealing to see how gleefully Fox News hosts crack jokes about working-class people.
It reveals what they actually think about us. https://t.co/T4J9EIkoJt
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 9, 2018
In addition to saving up some money before leaving her bartending job, Ocasio-Cortez admits that she and her partner have worked together to make the most of the situation.
“We’re kind of just dealing with the logistics of it day by day, but I’ve really been just kind of squirreling away and then hoping that gets me to January,” she said.
Hopefully, when Ocasio-Cortez gets into office,she can start to work to fix these problems, but until then all we can say is: Honestly, girl, same.