Ocasio-Cortez Gets Hero’s Welcome at Local Swearing In

On a similar theme, of taking on powerful interests, newly minted State Senator Alessandra Biaggi said she and the freshman congresswoman have something in common. “Both of us beat very powerful men. Both of us were told that it was not possible,” she said.

Biaggi ousted former State Senator Jeff Klein, the one-time head of the breakaway Independent Democratic Caucus and a co-leader of the Senate majority with the Republicans for the past nine years. Ocasio-Cortez defeated 10-term congressman Joe Crowley.

"It took an entire community to unlearn the old ways of being to make this happen. It took an entire community rediscovering its power and its voice. You are all the political currency of our time," Biaggi added.