ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ - 'THE PEOPLE WILL SHOW ME THE WAY'

It's an early May afternoon in Washington, D.C., and as a group of demonstrators gather outside the Capitol protesting cuts to Medicaid, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is in her congressional office, excitedly pulling bright pink, blue and yellow yarns out of her bag.

- LORENA O'NEIL

"I am knitting a cardigan; I call it my Fruity Pebble sweater," says Ocasio-Cortez, holding the colourful jumble against her black dress. The congresswoman has recently started knitting as an alternative to doomscrolling. "This is a practice that forces me to slow down. In a moment like this, when there's so much chaos, it is designed to basically just wear our nervous system down raw, so we are then overwhelmed, paralysed and have to accept whatever new development there is going on that day." Ocasio-Cortez is no stranger to existing in chaos she was thrust into the national spotlight in June 2018 when she upset House Democratic Caucus chair Joe Crowley in New York's 14th congressional district primary election. The attention has brought OcasioCortez her fair share of both recognition and abuse, which we talked about when we met last year at a diner in Queens to discuss her legislation to end nonconsensual, sexually explicit deepfakes online. A lot has changed since then, especially politically. President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 race, Vice President Kamala Harris replaced him on the top of the ticket, and Donald Trump was elected for a second time.

Trump's whirlwind first 100 days in office steadily chipped away at democracy as we know it, with free speech, due process and the balance of power in the crosshairs. In that time, the Democratic Party has come under fire, accused of not being ready to meet the moment that is demanded of party leadership.

But a notable exception to this narrative has been Ocasio-Cortez, whose Fighting Oligarchy rallies with Sen. Bernie Sanders have drawn tens of thousands of people in states like California, Utah and Colorado.