When Mike Casca found out his car battery wasn’t working, he went and found his boss, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to help jumpstart his car.
Casca is AOC’s chief of staff, and as he tells the story in his tweet, his car battery went kaput on the Capitol Plaza, and AOC then went to work while three guys basically watched.
when your car battery dies on the capitol plaza, instead of calling aaa you just need @AOC. pic.twitter.com/VcQpTXWboz
— mike casca (@cascamike) September 11, 2024
Why is that newsy?
First, it was viewed 3.3 million times on Twitter and liked 52,400 times. Now that alone doesn’t cut the standard of this site, but it’s somewhat noteworthy.
But here’s why anecdotes like this matter.
When AOC does this kind of thing, it doesn’t seem fake or inauthentic. It’s part of her electoral appeal. Not because she’s a woman who knows how to jump a battery, but because she’s casually taking on the responsibility like it’s no big deal to her and it’s just life. Kind of like what you’d expect from someone who was still waiting tables and tending bar at a taqueria just six years ago.
It’s hard to imagine populist Donald Trump or even working man’s champ, Bernie Sanders, personally jumping in to do this for their employees. If not from pride, then certainly from the assumption that this isn’t the kind of thing they do or have done in many years (or even know how to do).
Simply put, AOC ran her first campaign for public office and won, in part, on an “I’m like you” image and, despite her expensive dresses and ritzy photo shoots, still does stuff like this that makes it hard to pin “elitist” on her.
Similarly, despite his inherited wealth and privilege, Donald Trump is seen by a large segment as an ordinary working man, and simple things like proudly indulging in fast food help buttress that appeal.
As the authors of Let Trump be Trump, wrote:
“On Trump Force One there were four major food groups: McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, pizza and Diet Coke.”
Anecdotes like that and videos like this serve as a counterbalance to his wealth and that matters, electorally.
The same applies for AOC, even though she isn’t enormously wealthy.
In fact, the right wing recently tried to paint her as someone who’s grown fabulously rich off her position in Congress. The meme duly went viral, and the conservative magazine, The Dispatch, promptly did a fact check showing that, no, AOC hasn’t grown wealthy, even by many Americans’ standards.
Alex Demas writing for The Dispatch:
Despite earning approximately $174,000 in pre-tax income per year as a member of Congress, Ocasio-Cortez’s wealth has not grown substantially during her five-and-a-half years in office. Ocasio-Cortez’s most recent FDR—filed in August 2024—show that, as of December 31, 2023, the congresswoman held between $3,002 and $46,000 in total funds across four bank accounts, as well as between $15,001 and $50,000 in debt from student loans.
But while her personal wealth hasn’t grown measurably since her time in office, her political capital has certainly increased.
Over at Politico, Nick Reisman recently detailed her growing alliance with moderates and power brokers in the Democratic party that befits someone with national ambitions and increasing sway. And we’ll see much more of that in the future.
And speaking of the future, Ocasio-Cortez will be 38 years old in 2028. JD Vance is 40 years old.
She’s going to be part of the 2028 conversation.