AOC Insists She Is a ‘Bronx Girl’ Despite Suburban Upbringing

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded to critics ridiculing her for calling herself a “Bronx girl” despite growing up in a majority-white village in New York state, insisting that she grew up “between” the two vastly different areas.

Responding to a social media jab from President Donald Trump after she called for his impeachment, the socialist congresswoman said, “I’m a Bronx girl. You should know that we can eat Queens boys for breakfast. Respectfully.”

Much to Ocasio-Cortez’s dismay, other social media users did not forget the scandal she caused in 2018 when she claimed to hail from the Bronx during her first election cycle:

“You grew up in a wealthy suburb of NYC. You’re not a ‘Bronx girl,'” conservative influencer Libs of TikTok wrote, along with a 2018 Daily Mail article exposing her background in the suburbs. 

County records obtained by the outlet revealed that the congresswoman’s late father, Sergio Cortez-Roman, bought a “quaint three-bedroom” home in Yorktown Heights, New York, in 1991, when she was about two years old. 

Her official candidate biography appeared to contradict this, stating that Ocasio-Cortez “commuted” to a school in Yorktown from the Bronx:

The state of Bronx public schools in the late 80s and early 90s sent her parents on a search for a solution. She ended up attending public school 40 minutes north in Yorktown, and much of her life was defined by the 40 minute commute between school and her family in the Bronx.

During a 2018 appearance on Stephen Colbert’s late-night show, she even made the same quip — that Trump, born in Queens, would not be able to handle “a girl from the Bronx,” such as herself.

As Breitbart News reported, Ocasio-Cortez’s claim of being a “Bronx girl” is misleading at best — she was born there, but did not grow up there. 

Following Ocasio-Cortez’s June 24 X post referring to her alleged Bronx upbringing, video creator Benny Johnson went to the “safe, clean, patriotic and wealthy” census-designated area:

“It’s a slice of small town American heaven,” Johnson added in the caption of his footage, showing shots of the quiet village. 

Census records show that Yorktown, which encompasses Ocasio-Cortez’s enclave of Yorktown Heights, was 90 percent white in 2000.

The majority of the Bronx’s residents are Hispanic, and it has the least amount of white residents of all New York City’s boroughs.

Ocasio-Cortez responded to the renewed backlash on the topic in a Thursday fundraising email obtained by the New York Post.

“I’m proud of how I grew up and talk about it all the time! My mom cleaned houses and I helped. We cleaned tutors’ homes in exchange for SAT prep,” she wrote. “Growing up between The Bronx and Yorktown deeply shaped my views of inequality and it’s a big reason I believe the things I do today!”

Ocasio-Cortez was still listed as a resident of her parents’ Yorktown Heights home when it was sold in 2016 — two years before her election to Congress, the outlet reported of public land records.

Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.