Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Easily Wins Reelection to Congress

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Samantha Burkardt/Getty Images Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has secured re-election to New York's 14th Congressional District.

The Democratic representative made history in 2018 as the youngest woman ever to win a seat in Congress. Since then, the 33-year-old progressive has lobbied for issues like equitable health care, affordable housing and immigration reform.

According to a Cook Partisan Voting Index, the district was a positive 28 points in favor for Ocasio-Cortez, up five points from last year. She handily won re-election in her New York Seat against Republican challenger Tina Forte.

Following her win on Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez shared on Twitter that she is grateful for her supporters "who make a new kind of governance possible."

While campaigning for her re-election, the New York representative highlighted the effects of COVID-19 by stressing a need "to respond to COVID-19 with permanent systems and structures" like Medicare for All, and the employment of undocumented individuals.

Ocasio-Cortez has been an outspoken representative since the start of her time in office.

RELATED: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Says She Does Miss the 'Anonymity' of Her Life Before Congress

In July 2020, Ocasio-Cortez was harshly confronted by a colleague in an altercation with Republican Congressman Ted Yoho. The incident was overheard by a reporter, though Yoho has disputed that version of events.

The New York representative has also faced the wrath of Republican officials and supporters of former President Donald Trump, some of whom stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. She shared in a September interview with GQ that she feels there is "open hostility" against her in Congress.

RELATED VIDEO: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Dismisses Ted Yoho's Apology After Encounter On Tuesday

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"I feel like everybody treated me like a one-term member of Congress, and they worked to make me a one-term member of Congress," Ocasio-Cortez said in the interview. "There was a very concerted effort from the Democratic side to unseat me. And I felt a shift after my primary election, and it felt like after that election was the first time that more broadly the party started treating me like a member of Congress and not an accident."

While she has noted a shift in how Democrats treat her, AOC told GQ that she still feels "despised."

"Others may see a person who is admired, but my everyday lived experience here is as a person who is despised," she told the outlet. "Imagine working a job and your bosses don't like you and folks on your team are suspicious of you. And then the competing company is trying to kill you."