AOC refuses to pay $250,000 in dues to Democrats to protest 'discrimination' against people of similar origin
Firebrand Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or AOC as she is known, has refused to pay the $250,000 that she owes in dues to her party. The money is meant to be used to keep the Dems' majority in the House.
Speaking to Fox News in an interview last Friday, January 10, the 30-year-old lawmaker who became the youngest to get elected to the Congress in 2018 mid-term elections said her fundraising should not end up preventing more people like her from being in the Congress.
Fox News reported that the New York Congresswoman has been under fire for not paying her six-figure dues to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to protest a policy that she finds "blacklists" vendors for working with challengers like her.
"I don't see the sense in giving a quarter-million dollars to an organization that has clearly told people like me that we're not welcome," the Democratic leader said, who is a member of the 'Squad' that comprises three other progressive women of color.
AOC still in debt with $20,000 in student loans
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she is proud to be a member of the Democratic Party and its majority even while facing criticism that she should quit the party and become an independent if she was not a "team player".
Speaking for herself, AOC said she has raised over $300,000 directly for the party's progressive faces, including the incumbents in the swing districts and she said that effort was part of her "preserving and expanding the Democratic majority".
She also thought that asking a fresh Congresswoman aged 30 to raise that much amount was quite something, adding that she still has to pay off $20,000 in student loans.
All House Democrats are required to pay dues to the campaign committee and the range is between $150,000 for freshers to $1million for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
AOC's fund-raising capacity hasn't gone unnoticed though. Last November, it was reported that she raised funds worth $1.42 million in the third quarter of 2019 and it was more than any other House Democrat, including veterans like Adam Schiff ($1.26 million) and Pelosi ($1.14 million).
AOC and her co-Squad members, however, do not share a perfect relation with the likes of Pelosi as the veteran and the progressives were seen engaging in verbal strikes quite a few times in the past.