While Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 29, has proven herself to be fearless in the face of adversity, she will soon be undertaking what might be her most grueling task yet: teaching a bunch of older adults how to be relatable and engaging on social media. What’s more is that her students will be none other than her fellow Democratic colleagues, the very people who are reportedly terrified of Ocasio-Cortez “mean-tweeting” them.
On Thursday, the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee will host a workshop on “the most effective ways to engage constituents on Twitter and the importance of digital storytelling” with Ocasio-Cortez, who runs her own Twitter. But the young congresswoman won’t be taking on this potentially Sisyphean task alone — she’ll be joined by Representative Jim Himes, a man who once had a proclivity for tweeting out haiku, but has since set healthy social-media boundaries for himself. (Notably, no tweeting after drinking more than two beers.)
Here’s one of his recent tweets:
Though it’s unlikely that the representatives will be able to replicate Ocasio-Cortez’s exact Twitter and Instagram strategy — excluding Rashida Tlaib or Ilhan Omar, both of whom already have good social-media presence — this workshop will undoubtedly be helpful to many.
“The older generation of members and senators is pretty clueless on the social media platforms,” Himes told USA Today. “It’s pretty clear that a lot of members have 25-year-olds in their offices.”
So who will be the first Democratic representative to put out a video of themselves dancing to mid-2000s indie pop?
