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In a live stream on Instagram on Wednesday, Nov. 6, Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat who represents New York's 14th congressional district consisting of parts of the Bronx and Queens, addressed followers to discuss the election results including the re-election of former President Donald Trump.
"We are about to enter a political period that will have consequences for the rest of our lives,” Ocasio-Cortez, also known as AOC, said during the live stream, also saying that Trump's second term in office would be a "very, very, very difficult, challenging time."
She also said the country was on the verge of entering into an era of "fascism and authoritarianism."
During the live stream, Ocasio-Cortez reflected on the Democrats' loss of the presidency and attributed Vice President Kamala Harris's defeat to a lack of working-class support.
"We have had an enormous setback in this election because the fascists won a lot of working-class support, which has happened before in history," she said, adding that Democrats must "unite the working class in this country against a fascist agenda."
Ocasio-Cortez also expressed hope that the Democrats would gain a majority in the House so they could "prevent some of the worst legislative proposals from going through," citing a potential national abortion ban.
"A lot hinges on what happens in the House of Representatives and control of the US House...if Democrats control the house, that gives a slight ledge to resist," she said, adding that if Republicans gain the majority and look to pass a national abortion ban, there would be "very little" Democrats could do to stop it.
Despite this, she urged her followers to not give up.
"Regimes and autocracies are taken down by billions of drops of small actions that would otherwise be invisible," she said in the live stream.
Ocasio-Cortez, age 35, was born in the Bronx and spent her early childhood there until her family moved Northern Westchester, where she attended Yorktown High School and graduated in 2007. She is a member of "The Squad," a group of progressive members of Congress.
Her time at Yorktown has generated attention from her conservative opponents, including John Cardillo of Newsmax, who said it was a "far cry from the Bronx hood upbringing she’s selling" in a post on X in 2018.
Despite this, Ocasio-Cortez mentions her Yorktown upbringing on her own campaign website: "Much of Alexandria’s adolescence was spent in transit between her tight-knit extended family in The Bronx and school in Yorktown Heights. It struck Alexandria as unfair, even then, how the opportunities available to children and their families were often based on their ZIP code."
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