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- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stepped onto the stage at the DNC as a key Democratic surrogate.
- Before Ocasio-Cortez entered Congress, many saw her as a institutional disruptor.
- But the New York congresswoman has sought to forge alliances and is now the No. 2 Democrat on the Oversight panel.
When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez burst onto the national political scene in 2018, it was clear that she little patience for politics as usual.
Ocasio-Cortez's defeat of then-Rep. Joe Crowley in New York's 14th congressional district Democratic primary that year signaled the rising influence of progressivism within the party, especially among working-class voters, along with millennials and Gen Zers.