After securing a stunning upset victory over long-term incumbent Joe Crowley in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has suddenly become a household name. The 28-year-old, who’s all but guaranteed to be the next congresswoman for New York’s 14th District, appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to talk about the surprise over her win and facing off against Donald Trump.
Most significantly, she unpacked democratic socialism — an ideology that’s still unfamiliar, and perhaps frightening, to many — for a massive late-night TV audience. “I believe that in a modern, moral, and wealthy society, no person in America should be too poor to live,” she explained. “What that means to me is health care as a human right, it means that every child no matter where you are born should have access to a college or trade-school education if they so choose it. I think that no person should be homeless if we have public structures or public policy to allow for people to have homes and food and lead a dignified life in the United States.”
Ocasio-Cortez also quipped she doesn’t think Donald Trump “knows how to deal with a girl from the Bronx.”
Watch the full clip, below:
