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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she can’t afford DC rent before Congress salary starts

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told the New York Times that getting an apartment in D.C. before January when her congressional salary kicks in might be a challenge.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may be the youngest women ever elected to Congress at age 29, but that doesn’t make her immune to problems facing young professionals who live in Washington, D.C.… like paying rent.

Ocasio-Cortez, a self-described democratic socialist who won New York’s 14th District election on Tuesday, told the New York Times that getting an apartment in D.C. before January when her congressional salary kicks in might be a challenge.

“I can’t really take a salary. I have three months without a salary before I’m a member of Congress. So, how do I get an apartment? Those little things are very real,” she said in the interview.

During her campaign, Ocasio-Cortez had said that she was still paying off her student loans and until recently had no health insurance. Her last job was at a restaurant, and she told the Times that she saved money before leaving that job.

On Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez reassured her supporters that “we’re working it out!”

“There are many little ways in which our electoral system isn’t even designed (nor prepared) for working-class people to lead. This is one of them (don’t worry btw - we’re working it out!),” she tweeted, with a link to the New York Times story.

Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx but raised in suburban Westchester County. Her father died while she was a student at Boston University in 2008. She got her start in politics as an organizer for Sen. Bernie Sanders. She calls herself a "Democratic socialist" and supports a national $15 minimum wage and universal health care coverage.

She shocked many in New York politics, including herself, when she came out of nowhere to defeat 10-term Rep. Joe Crowley in New York's Democratic congressional primary last spring.

Contributing: Associated Press

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