FILE - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, center, embrace campaign volunteer Riley Roberts in a hug, the morning after her Congressional election upset of U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley, Wednesday, June 27, 2018, in New York. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, used her social media accounts to confirm her engagement to Roberts, a marketing professional whom she met while both were undergraduate students at Boston University in 2011. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., speaks at a rally outside an Amazon facility on Staten Island in New York, Sunday, April 24, 2022. In the aftermath of their hard-won labor victory, Amazon workers in the New York City borough of Staten Island popped Champagne, cheered their victory and danced in celebration. But their jovial attitude will be tested by a company that seems likely to drag its feet to the bargaining table. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)FILE - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, center, embrace campaign volunteer Riley Roberts in a hug, the morning after her Congressional election upset of U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley, Wednesday, June 27, 2018, in New York. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) used her social media accounts to confirm her engagement to Roberts, a marketing professional whom she met while both were undergraduate students at Boston University in 2011. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
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FILE - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, center, embrace campaign volunteer Riley Roberts in a hug, the morning after her Congressional election upset of U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley, Wednesday, June 27, 2018, in New York. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, used her social media accounts to confirm her engagement to Roberts, a marketing professional whom she met while both were undergraduate students at Boston University in 2011. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
NEW YORK – U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Thursday she's engaged to her longtime partner Riley Roberts, a marketing professional she met over a decade ago while they were undergraduates at Boston University.
The pair got engaged last month in her family's hometown in Puerto Rico, the Democratic congresswoman confirmed to Insider and later on social media. Roberts had appeared in a 2018 political documentary in which he discussed his support for Ocasio-Cortez’s career.
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Ocasio-Cortez, a Bronx-born former bartender who represents Queens, was the charismatic star of the “squad” of progressive congresswomen whose elections in 2018 helped return the chamber to Democratic control.
A self-described democratic socialist, the 32-year-old upset powerful Democratic incumbent Joe Crowley in that year's primary, and easily prevailed in 2020 over opponents including former CNBC broadcaster Michelle Caruso-Cabrera.
Alongside U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez has attempted to lead the Democratic party where it long feared to tread: Steep taxes on the rich. Abolishing an immigration enforcement agency. Proposing “economic transformation” to combat climate change.
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez recently spoke in support of organizers spearheading the successful union drive at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, New York. She also supports a bill banning stock trading by members of Congress and their families.
Last November, the House voted to censure Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona for posting an animated video that depicted him killing Ocasio-Cortez with a sword, an extraordinary rebuke that highlighted the political strains testing Washington and the country.
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