Getty Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez married? No, she doesn't have a husband.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the new Congresswoman from New York who has shaken up the political establishment, is not married and does not have a husband. She’s single.
That isn’t surprising, perhaps, considering the fact that Ocasio-Cortez, at just 29-years-old, is now the youngest member of the United States Congress. In fact, according to CNN, Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. (In case you’re curious, the woman who held the record before – Rep. Elise Stefanik – was only 30 when she took office.)
GettyAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
However, Ocasio-Cortez, a former bartender and Bernie Sanders organizer, is in a relationship with a man named Riley Roberts, her college sweetheart who has been at her side in Washington D.C. as she embarks on what has been a meteoric journey to the pinnacle of American governance. Ocasio-Cortez, who was a political newcomer, upended the political establishment when she defeated a veteran Democrat, New York Rep. Joe Crowley, to take her seat in Congress. She is scheduled to appear on 60 Minutes on the evening of January 6, 2019.
Here’s what you need to know:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Lived in a Bronx Apartment With Her Significant Other, Riley Roberts
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (L) performs the ceremonial swearing-in of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (3rd-L), D-NY, at the start of the 116th Congress January 3, 2019 at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Roberts has the red hair and is second from right.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was living with her partner, Riley Roberts, in an apartment in the Bronx, according to Vogue Magazine. Vogue describes Roberts as “an easygoing redhead who works in web development” and said the pair lived in a one-bedroom apartment together.
She told Vogue that they met “in true nerdy fashion,” at a “weekly Friday-afternoon conversation hosted by the dean at BU (Boston University). He later moved from Arizona to be with her.” The Vogue author described meeting Roberts “backstage at The Daily Show” where “he was casually citing tax rates in the 1950s.”
Roberts was with Ocasio-Cortez for a mock swearing in at the U.S. Capitol. “A really incredible day, really special,” he told The New York Post, which reported that Roberts indicated he liked Washington D.C., quoting him as saying, “It’s great.” When asked by the Post, Ocasio-Cortez declined to say whether she was giving up her Congressional pay during the partial governmental shutdown, which may speak to the couple’s humble backgrounds. According to The Independent, Ocasio-Cortez couldn’t afford to rent a Washington D.C. apartment until she started drawing her Congressional salary.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), takes part in a ceremonial mock swearing in ceremony with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Capitol Hill on January 3, 2019 in Washington, DC. Roberts is standing third from right.
“I have three months without a salary before I’m a member of Congress. So, how do I get an apartment? Those little things are very real,” she told The New York Times, saying that she had left a job at a restaurant but did save money. “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, referring to Roberts, who also graduated from Boston University and who, according to his LinkedIn page, has worked in marketing and as a “UX Growth Consultant” helping companies with things like Facebook ads and digital marketing. You can see a picture of Roberts inside the couple’s apartment here.
Ocasio-Cortez Also Has a Brother & Her Mother Is Still Living
GettyAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Ocasio-Cortez’s parents had two children.
According to the New York Post, Ocasio-Cortez was born to Puerto Rican parents who worked as an architect and cleaner. Her father is deceased, but her mother Blanca Ocasio-Cortez works in Florida as a school secretary, The Post reported. She also has a brother named Gabriel Ocasio-Cortez. She has worked as a waitress and bartender to help pay the bills, and the apartment she shares with Roberts is located in Parkchester, which is part of the Bronx. Her father died in 2008 after suffering from cancer.
She graduated with a degree in economics and international relations from Boston University in 2011. She worked for U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy’s office for a time while in college, according to The Boston Globe. At BU, she was involved in student activism. For example, she was president of a group for Latin American students called Alianza Latina.
GettyRep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
This was her first bid for elective office. She is also the founder of Brook Avenue Press, which publishes children’s books, according to Ballotpedia. The New York Times describes her as a “a democratic socialist.”
Ocasio-Cortez is very close to her mother. In fact, she wrote a lengthy and emotional tribute to her mother on social media, writing, “What can I possibly say except thank you? So many people sacrificed so much for this to happen ― my mother most of all.” She added, “Mami mopped floors, drove school buses, + answered phones. She did whatever she needed to do, for me. When my father died, she was left a single mother of 2, and again she had to start over. After he passed we almost lost our home, so we sold it and started over. & over. & over. It was not long ago that our family’s hope was so dim it was barely an ember. Darkness taught me transformation cannot solely be an individual pursuit, but also a community trust. We must lean on others to strive on our own.”
A quick note to you all.
Let us never, ever, ever give up.
Ocasio-Cortez’s 60 Minutes appearance was scheduled for 7 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. She told Anderson Cooper on the program that she believes Democrats have been too compromising with Republicans but also said she was open to compromise in some cases, saying, “I think so. I think — I think we’ve compromised things that we shouldn’t have compromised, whether it’s judgeships with Mitch McConnell, whether it’s compromising on climate change. I think we’ve — there are some things that we’ve compromised a little bit too much on. But am I open to compromise on certain ways to get things done? Absolutely. Absolutely.”
READ NEXT: Read More About Riley Roberts.